JP Morgan: Too big to bail

JP Morgan – the big bank that just lost more than $2 billon on a bad derivatives deal – receives up to $14 billion a year in government subsidies, according to a  new study from the International Monetary Fund. 
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It was just the other week when predatory vampire capitalist presidential candidate Mitt Romney said that we need to cut back on government spending because, you know, we have too many public workers. Not because too-big-to-fail banks are gambling billions while collecting taxpayer money.

In fact, this is what Mr. 1% said after the JP Morgan loss:

That’s the way…America works. Some people experienced a loss in this case because of a bad decision. By the way, there was someone who made a gain, all right. The $2 billion J.P. Morgan lost someone else gained.

But Romney wasn't concerned that ordinary American taxpayers experienced some of that loss. As Bloomberg News reported:

When JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon testifies in the U.S. House today, he will present himself as a champion of free-market capitalism in opposition to an overweening government. His position would be more convincing if his bank weren’t such a beneficiary of corporate welfare…U.S. taxpayers helped foot the bill for the multibillion-dollar trading loss that is the focus of today’s hearing.

Once again we are reminded that politicians like Romney who represent the interests of Wall Street are not interested in “shared sacrifice.” They insist working Americans need to cut back, but not the super-rich. Banks like JP Morgan should be considered too big for bailouts and subsidies.

Working-class homeowners are the ones who deserve help. People like Deborah Harris – whose home has been taken away from her by JP Morgan. Or the residents of Jefferson County, Ala., who got ripped off by the bank.

Harris confronted Dimon when he appeared before Congress last week. Watch the video here (starts at around 4:00).

And here's the story of how JP Morgan bribed friends of Jefferson County officials so it could arrange the funding for a new sewer system. The funding deal backfired and sewer rates rose fourfold. Of course it's government spending that gets blamed, not JP Morgan's avarice.