Tag: investment banks

The Real Continuity Edition

On By southwerkIn business ethics4 Comments

The Real Continuity Edition

The brief selection below is from an article by Zach Carter from the Huffington Post called: Wall Street Is Even More Craven Than We Thought and sub titled: The new alliance between financial executives and Donald Trump.

Democrats used to see Jamie Dimon as one of the good guys on Wall Street. Once hailed as a “progressive” by The New Republic, the JPMorgan Chase CEO counted himself friends with two different chiefs of staff to President Barack Obama and traveled to the first black White House no less than 16 times. In 2009, The New York Times described him as “Obama’s favorite banker.” He has publicly supported same-sex marriage and the legalization of undocumented immigrants.

Dimon gave hundreds of thousands to Democratic Party candidates, the party itself, and even the Center for American Progress, a think tank advancing the ideas of Bill Clinton and Obama.

But there was Dimon on Friday, sitting at a table surrounded by other wealthy corporate executives, being praised by President Donald Trump ― a man who publicly supports war crimes and is already flirting with a constitutional crisis as he implements a campaign promise to impose “a complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”

In my case, the title is wrong, I was under no illusion that the giant investment banks had any limit on their willingness to cut deals with anyone, anywhere, anytime. The only difference is that they were already part of the new government if it had been Hilary and now have to scramble. I find it hard to sympathize with their plight.

!!!i_00i_009_tnBut this is the American way of banking. Homeowners may be cheated out of their possessions, economies crashed, strange overseas deals and money laundering take place and yet, the American Investment banks dwell at the heart of our government shaping laws and policies. It’s like Mom and Apple Pie, if Mom and Apple Pie were immoral cancers eating out the heart of our democracy.

Let me point out that many of these Investment banks have pleaded the equivalent of no contest to charges that would put a normal human being like you or I in prison for millions and millions of years. Yet, there they are at the heart of our government cutting a new set of deals making the world safe for financial speculation of the American kind.

If Obama had pursued criminal prosecutions against the banks in the aftermath of the financial disaster of 2007, their political power might very well have been broken as they were in the aftermath of the Great Depression. Instead for many years to come they will play politicians against each other like chess pieces on a board while preying on the poor and the middle class. Obama’s failure to pursue justice against the malefactors who came within an ace of destroying our economy is his greatest failure.

Warren: Consumer agency on small banks’ side (via MSNBC)

On By southwerkIn business ethics

I have become concerned at the language of corporate ethics and white collar crime. It is not precise enough for what we are doing. I have talked many times about banks often very critically. But very seldom was I speaking of the local banks, the small banks. Generally, the despicable actions of the 24 large investment banks were what was motivating my anger. We don’t have the right words. Multi-national corporations shifting jobs overseas are not the same as close corporations composed of a single family running a large farm. We speak of corporations and banks but we mean only a few. We need a new language in business ethics. We need a new precision. Those small banks, those small businesses would be allies in the fight for morality and justice if not lumped in with the others everytime criticism is made.

We need a new language.

James Pilant

From MSNBC –

Small banks have expressed concern the new agency, set to open its doors in July, will add regulatory costs, making it harder for them to survive.

Warren told a gathering of community bankers that the opposite will happen as the agency simplifies regulations on products such as mortgages and seeks to crack down on non-bank lenders that went largely unregulated during the 2007-2009 financial crisis and are accused of shady lending practices.

“I know that you want a regulatory structure that doesn’t require an army of lawyers,” she said in remarks prepared for delivery at the Independent Community Bankers of America annual convention. “Big banks may be able to afford to hire all those lawyers, but you cannot.”