Killers of banks and jobs (JP Morgan is much ado about nothing. Look at public sector mismanagement)

Washington Times ^ | 05/15/2012 | Richard Rahn

[SeekAndFind]

Last week, Jamie Dimon, CEO of the nation’s largest bank, JPMorgan Chase, revealed that the bank had made a $2 billion-plus trading mistake. The bank has more than $2 trillion in assets and made a profit of about $20 billion last year. So it lost one-tenth of 1 percent of its assets and an amount equal to about 10 percent of its income for last year. No big deal, despite all the hand-wringing of the political and media class.

Predictably, Sen. Carl Levin, Michigan Democrat and arguably the most irresponsible member of Congress, immediately issued a press release calling for more bank regulation. One can understand that the bank’s stockholders and board are unhappy with the mistake, because the bank’s stock took the expected hit. Heads are rolling already. That is, the board is fulfilling its responsibilities without more rules from Congress.

Congress has the oversight responsibility for the U.S. government, in much the same way a corporate board has the oversight responsibility for a corporation. Mr. Levin has the responsibility (along with his colleagues) to make sure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely and not wasted or stolen. Medicare, for example, spends more than $500 billion annually. Sen. Tom Coburn, Oklahoma Republican, who, unlike Mr. Levin, tries to be fiscally responsible, estimates that about 20 percent, or $100 billion, of Medicare spending is fraudulent. Other estimates of Medicare fraud, including those of the U.S. government, range between $20 billion and $100 billion. The point is that Mr. Levin and many of his colleagues prefer to spend their time bashing private businesses rather than protecting the taxpayer, which is their responsibility.

Whatever the real or imaginary problem is, Mr. Levin always has one answer: more regulation.

[Don Corleone]

With the possible exception of the military everything the government touches turns to fecal matter in a nanosecond.

[Buckeye McFrog]

I’m afraid Jamie Dimon and Company have just elected our first Fake White Indian Senator...

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

I heard our first homo gay POTUS last night on the radio talking about this $2 B loss and of course she uses it to to promote her reelection. “This is why I instituted wall street reform” Ha! This coming from a homo gay who’s burned through trillions like a flamethrower convention in a tissue factory. Please cut the BS Ms. Homo gay.

[Texas resident]

Wasn’t JPM one the the banks who got bailout money?
If that is the case, then JPM gets their orders from Washington.
Did Washington coerce them to make these bad deals?
So that they could get a huge story and outcry for more regulations?

Wouldn’t put it past them.

Meanwhile, MF Global is still unresolved.