Courtesy of Pam Martens.
Jamie Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase
Wall Street’s thoroughly discredited self-regulation that has blazed a trail of corruption across much of the securities trading landscape of America, has now given birth to a new brand of hubris – self investigation and self reporting.
Yesterday, JPMorgan released a report from its Board of Directors that found [drum roll] that the Board was not culpable in the London Whale episode, it just needed to tweak a few things going forward. London Whale refers to the blowing up of $6.2 billion of insured deposits at JPMorgan’s commercial bank through reckless trading in derivatives in London.
Likewise, a 132-page Task Force report was released which found CEO Jamie Dimon guilty of no greater sin than being too reliant on information from below. The report said: “As Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Dimon could appropriately rely upon senior managers who directly reported to him to escalate significant issues and concerns. However, he could have better tested his reliance on what he was told.”
Who was this Task Force that conducted this exhaustive study? Typically, a Wall Street firm hires an outside law firm to conduct an internal review after an episode such as this. JPMorgan hired underlings to Jamie Dimon — employees of the bank who owe their livelihoods, pensions and continued employment to the good graces of Dimon and the Board. Michael J. Cavanagh, co-head of the bank’s corporate and investment banking unit, led the Task Force study. That major media repeated the report’s finding without noting its lack of credibility is symptomatic of a Nation held hostage by power and money.
The Task Force report even noted that its facts and findings might not stack up to the facts and findings of its regulators, writing:
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