Mr. Dimon on the HillEditorialNEW YORK TIMESUnfortunately, not a single Banking Committee member pressed Mr. Dimon on the issue. … A … possible explanation is that senators from both parties are still in thrall to Mr. Dimon and the deep pockets of the banking industry. Some Democratic senators did challenge Mr. Dimon, notably Robert Menendez of New Jersey and Jeff Merkley of Oregon. But until more lawmakers commit to the toughest possible rules, the nation’s financial system will remain vulnerable to all of that “greed, arrogance, hubris, lack of attention to detail” that Mr. Dimon acknowledges, even as he resists the rules that would curb it.JP Morgan and other banks must yield to the big-picture risksEditorialWASHINGTON POSTPortfolio hedging is still a necessary and valid tool, Mr. Dimon argues; the ease with which it “morphed” at his bank, however, suggests otherwise. Yes, the losses this time were manageable and confined to the bank’s shareholders. What about the next time, though? If federally insured banks must reduce risk through other means, including assembling less risky credits on their balance sheets in the first place, so be it.
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The Wall Street SenateBy Dana MilbankWASHINGTON POSTDimon had a more deserving target for his criticism than Democrats and regulations: a demand to “get our fiscal act in order” before the election and before automatic tax increases take effect next year. The Simpson-Bowles plan “is a road map which I like,” he said, and the important thing is “getting something like that done.” If Dimon is the senators’ best friend, as their fawning suggests, perhaps they’ll take this advice seriously.Dimon Takes the HillEditorialWALL STREET JOURNALMr. Dimon also reminded the Members that the bank’s losses have all been its money and that Morgan is also sitting on unrealized portfolio gains in the neighborhood of $7 billion. As Republican Jim DeMint quipped, the Senate loses $2 billion or so every day. The problem remains that J.P. Morgan is still a too-big-to-fail bank, a fact that Dodd-Frank has only reinforced. In that context, Mr. Dimon’s best comment was to remind lawmakers that there is a better way to handle a failing bank than a “resolution” process. It’s an old-fashioned word, but one worth resurrecting: Mr. Dimon called it “bankruptcy.”
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