NEW YORK (Reuters) - The S&P 500 posted its best week in nine on Friday as the market defied calls for a pullback, and investors rotated into defensive and lagging sectors in a move that could intensify in coming weeks.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama called on U.S. businesses on Saturday to do more to boost the economy by hiring more workers and making investments.
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders agreed on Friday to merge and strengthen energy networks in a move that gives fresh impetus to the renewable energy industry and will help curb Europe's growing reliance on fossil fuels.
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Jamie Dimon, CEO and chairman of JPMorgan Chase & Co, answers a question during an interview in his office in New York December 22, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Lucas Jackson
NEW YORK | Fri Feb 4, 2011 10:00am EST
NEW YORK (Reuters) - What's eating Jamie Dimon?
At last week's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, the JPMorgan Chase chief executive once again lambasted the media and politicians for portraying all bankers as greedy evil-doers.
It was at least the 12th time since the start of the financial crisis that Dimon has complained about Wall Street critics painting all bankers as cut from the same cloth. But the timing of his latest outburst seemed odd.
In December, as part of President Barack Obama's bid to make nice with U.S. business leaders, Dimon was invited to a private Oval Office one-on-one with the president to discuss the economy. Dimon and his wife Judy were also guests at the state dinner the White House arranged for Chinese President Hu Jintao last month. And one of Dimon's top executives, Bill Daley, was tapped by the president as chief of staff.
By most objective standards that's a lot of love Obama has showered on Dimon, even though JPMorgan spent more money than any other Wall Street firm to lobby against key parts of last year's financial regulatory reform law.
If Dimon seems unusually thin-skinned, many industry insiders say, it is an indication of the importance the 54-year-old Queens, New York native places on his legacy -- and how that will affect his ability to forge a life beyond finance.
Dimon has worked hard over the years to sell investors and analysts on the notion that JPMorgan doesn't play by the same set of brass-knuckled rules as Goldman Sachs Group, Citigroup or even Bear Stearns -- which Dimon acquired with a healthy dollop of taxpayer help in the early days of the crisis.
He also likes to portray himself as a regular guy, who just happens to run a banking colossus.
But there's another side to the popular narrative about Dimon the Good and how he outperformed his peers by steering clear of things like subprime-backed mortgage securities. In reality, the main reason JPMorgan didn't load up on subprime debt as much as other banks was because it was slow to enter the market, critics say.
Critics point out that JPMorgan, even if it wasn't a leader in churning out collateralized debt obligations, provided some of the building blocks for these toxic securities through all the home loans and second mortgages it sold.
And despite his good-guy image, Dimon is just as aggressive as any banker when it comes to looking for ways to generate fees from credit cards and other staple consumer banking products.
Indeed, JPMorgan under Dimon tried to make the most of its long relationship with convicted Ponzi king Bernard Madoff.
In a lawsuit unsealed on Thursday, the Madoff trustee alleges that the bank began drawing up plans in 2006 to sell structured notes tied to the returns of the many so-called feeder funds that funneled money to Madoff. The trustee, Irving Picard, said that JPMorgan went ahead with its structured note sales despite red flags -- because the "potential upside reward for investing through Madoff was simply too good to pass up even if there was a fraud."
In some ways what bugs Dimon when he gets tarred with the label of being just another banker is that it invites critics to take a fresh look at his stewardship -- not just of JPMorgan but of Bank One before it.
SIX-PACK JAMIE
Oh please. Cry me a river.
Banks are just legalized mafia. Loan sharking, protection rackets, Ponzi schemes, falsely inflated securities, fake “service charges”, tax bailouts, mega-bonuses for themselves, etc. Why don’t you bankers go boot a few more thousand families onto the streets and see if they respect you?
Mr. Dimon, You will gain respect when you and your bank have earned it. Your bank’s participation is the swindles (CDS, fraudulent documents in foreclosures, etc. bonuses to criminals) of 2008 remains to be investigated, and prosecuted by our government authorities and/ or the SEC. Son of a Greek, find the culprits yourself and deliver justice they deserve. HIre new and ethical people–not the Harvard idiots!! Now to the little things: In my financially responsible family alone, phone calls on issues have found people uneducated to the work of their own department; half the time, I only got satisfaction because I insisted that I see the branch manager-(and she was unable to get satisfaction from your title/ mortgage department for weeks). Then she disappeared to be replaced by some cashmere-suited ivy league type–who didn’t know ditkus. We want local banks, with local people,someone trutstworthy, someone to go to for solutions-not to be caught in an endless chain of phone calls on trunk lines to India, Malaysia, or South America!!! I have moved all my savings to local banks, and now I need to do the same for social security. Reputedly a hard worker, I would like to see you live up to your heritage and be a hero and right the social wrongs wrought by your and other banks—My grandsons, half-Greek themselves, would like to point with pride to such a person.
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