From Connie Madon at bloggingstocks.com:
Imagine this:Your bank holds $81 trillion dollars worth of derivatives which is 40% of all the derivatives held by all the banks. Actually this is not a fairy tale. JP Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM) does own this staggering pile of derivatives. What those derivatives contain in the way to toxic assets is a mystery because all of these transactions are “off the books.”
Now enter the government that wants to regulate the derivatives market and force more transparency in reporting transactions, which heretofore have been kept secret. One of the proposals is to have each transaction go through a clearing house so that there would be a visible record of the securities and the players.
As you might well guess, this does not sit well with Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan. He has started playing hardball with the government saying that since the bank paid back the TARP monies that he should be left alone to wheel his deals like he always has. We must remind Mr. Dimon that it was reckless speculation and leverage in derivatives that brought down our financial system.
Can’t we just leave Mr. Dimon alone to work his magic please?