First it was a $2 Billion loss; then I heard $4 Billion. Lately I’ve seen that it is almost $6 Billion? JPMorgan Chase Bank has admitted to a $5.8 Billion dollar loss (will this number rise too?). That’s Billions of dollars we’re talking about folks!
First question: Why has the number (of actual dollars lost) risen from $2 to $5.8 Billion dollars? Because, the bank says, its traders initially tried to conceal the true amount they lost. Oh really? What a surprise!
Second question: How did this loss happen in the first place? Apparently it was a trading-bet (or set of trading-bets) in the financial market-game that went sour. Well isn’t that a shame.
Third question, I have to wonder: What if that same trading-bet (or set of bets) did well, gained instead of lost? Would these same bank-traders have received bonuses instead of being fired? Would they have been held-up as role-models for other traders to follow by example? “We like results. Do more of the same.” Yet, is this not the same kind of banking-mentality that got us into this messed-up economy that we’re now in?
But here’s the reality. Talk to anyone who works at a casino, for example, and the upshot is this: If you bet long enough and hard enough, your winnings will eventually become losses. Ergo: Banks making bets in the financial market-game are no different: Great gains will eventually become great losses. It’s that simple.
Here’s a bit of irony. We cry foul and think very little of a man who causes his family to suffer because of huge betting-losses at gambling casinos, but we somehow think it a matter of business-is-business when banks gamble and sustain great losses in the trading-game, hurting millions of hardworking citizens along the way. Why is this?
According to Corky Siemaszko of the New York Daily News, GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney later dismissed the huge JPMorgan Chase loss as capitalism at work. That’s it? Capitalism at work, nothing more! Let me ask you, do you think that a $5.8 Billion dollar loss is nothing? And, by the way, do you know where you’re next paycheck is coming from, and do you have job security, and do you have all the income you need or want for your family’s welfare? Is this really how capitalism is supposed to work?
Folks, we’ve got to de-sanctify Capitalism. Capitalism is our Holy Cow. Capitalism is Sacrosanct. Oh Holy Capitalism! It is to be received without question, accepted without doubt, and followed without scrutiny. We worship Capitalism. Yes we do. And for that reason we are unwilling to change, modify, tweak, correct, or upgrade the system along the way—even when it is obvious that millions upon millions of people suffer from its sacred mantra: Laissez-Faire!
I saw Jamie Dimon’s response on BBC news. Dimon is JPMorgan Chase’ CEO. Here was his catch phrase, “We learned a lot from this.” Oh really! Whoopee Do! So the man admits that he isn’t in total control and that he doesn’t know everything that there is to know about banking and the market system. How nice, he’s learning. A good show of humility too, I’ve got to admit that much. But it’s not good enough. Not for me, is it for you?
This same man has been fighting vehemently to reduce or to keep-back banking regulation. This same man has been telling the public and congress that the banks know what they’re doing and so do not need Washington watch-dogs over their shoulders. Laissez-Faire!!
How about now, are we still to be convinced that Banks should be allowed to grow as big as they want, and trade as conveniently as they wish, with as little regulation as possible? Are Bankers—especially those that run, lead, and manage our nation’s largest banks—really as trustworthy as, shall we say, Andy Griffith’s banker might have been in the fictitious town of Mayberry? Folks, this is the real world we are talking about! In today’s day and age, no huge institution or system, especially the banking system, should have free reign with little regulation. Tell your congressional representative to stop cow-towing to the Wall Street/banking industry and start demanding more regulatory oversight. Remember, Congress is supposed to represent the people!
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