Earlier Too-Big-To-Fail Posts
The Fed and the FDIC: Building Goldman Sachs’ Fortress
Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, claimed his big bank has a “fortress balance sheet.” JPMorgan Chase’s balance sheet was managed better than others over the past decade. But a mighty fortress isn’t quite what the world’s top regulators would call the biggest banks’ derivatives portfolios — contractual promises of future performance that are booked OFF their…
Read MoreJPMorgan Chase, Derivatives and Really Crazy Too Big To Fail
Jamie Dimon is still both chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase. That was a decision appropriately left to shareholders. Some may have hoped that systemic risk could have been reduced by separating the two roles at the nation’s biggest bank. Why should financial market structure center on the abilities of one man? Mr. Dimon certainly is a very talented…
Read MoreOver-the-Counter Underground Derivatives
Gretchen Morgenson’s description last week of just a few of the ways Timothy Geithner protected the largest banks rather than the nation’s financial system concluded with the former Treasury Secretary blocking a bill to limit the size of deposit-taking banks. (Banks, at Least, Had A Friend in Geithner) By this action Secretary Geithner was protecting the biggest banks…
Read MoreIt’s a Charade
The U.S. government’s lawsuit against credit rating agency S&P hit many as it did me. It may have plenty of merit, but it appears to play a larger role in a huge, bipartisan charade. Our most powerful government officials would have the public believe that systemic risk has been vastly reduced. That isn’t true. They would…
Read MoreBailing Out Promises
“No more bailouts!” That’s the latest campaign promise from both presidential candidates. Congressmen have claimed that regularly, too. But bailouts of the biggest banks continue. What they are bailing out may surprise you. In Congressional hearings the biggest banks want us to believe they are like the little savings and loan portrayed in the movie It’s a…
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