Im on my way to Chicago today (which is minus 20 degrees at the moment) to talk to civic and foundation leaders about widening inequality. Speaking of which, JPMorgan Chase, the nations largest bank has just avoided the deep freeze again by agreeing to pay a $2 billion fine for ignoring Bernie Madoffs Ponzi scheme (JP was Madoffs primary bank for two decades before the scheme blew up) -- despite emails from executives at the time referring to the well-known cloud over the head of Madoff and speculating hes part of a Ponzi scheme, and a Bank Secrecy Act making it a criminal offense to facilitate money laundering or failing to report suspicious transactions to the authorities. The deal follows JPMorgans payment of $13 billion to the government over its sale of fraudulent mortgage securities, not to mention its alleged bribery of Chinese officials and its $6 billion loss in the London Whale scandal -- all told, $20 billion in fines and penalties over the past year. But those fines are still small potatoes to JPMorgan and wont make a dent in its end-of-year bonus pool. All of which should be enough evidence that Wall Streets major banks are too big to jail or fail or curtail, and must be broken up. Will the SEC under Janet Yellen lead the charge?
Posted on: Tue, 07 Jan 2014 14:39:01 +0000
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