Repatriated taxes will get America working

Banking titan Jamie Dimon shared his thoughts on how the rev up the American economy yesterday in an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, saying a bipartisan group of lawmakers need to come together and tackle such issues as infrastructure investment and education.

Dimon, despite his sordid history as CEO of J.P. Morgan Chase, makes a few good points. As the Teamsters have stressed in our new "Let's Get America Working" campaign, infrastructure is an ideal place to start. These jobs, unlike those in other sectors, can't be outsourced. They improve living standards for all Americans, including the men and women who help to repair and maintain roads, bridges, ports, airports and mass transit systems, along with those who earn a living transporting goods. And a vast majority of Americans use our transportation networks everyday.

As Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa wrote in The Hill newspaper earlier this month:

Improving the outlook for U.S. workers isn’t about creating millions of minimum-wage jobs. It is about creating sustainable, skilled union employment that allows Americans to earn a fair wage with benefits that pay for housing and food on the table, makes education affordable and sustains a comfortable existence. 

... By building roads, power plants and water treatment facilities, for instance, this nation can improve the fortunes of both working people and big business. And by focusing on such issues as worker rights, education and retirement security, policymakers can ensure the future is bright for all people.

The Teamsters also agree that partisanship needs to be checked at the door to accomplish these goals. These are issues that shouldn't be divided along party lines -- they are American values, something elected officials should all be able to support. Lawmakers must move beyond today's broken model of government to find solutions.

But Dimon gets it wrong on several fronts. Most significantly, his view that lousy trade deals like the 12-nation Trans-Pacific Partnership are going to help workers is not backed by facts. Quite frankly, it's the exact opposite of the truth. Millions of Americans have lost their good-paying jobs thanks to deals like NAFTA. U.S. workers can't compete when nations like Vietnam allow their workers to be paid as little as $4 a day.

And despite Dimon's assertions, American tax policy isn't hurting corporate America. In fact, it's taxpayers who are getting fleeced by big business. Companies are running up huge profits and paying little in taxes while everyday workers are forced into low-wage jobs. That's the real problem with today's economy.

If this country wants to get its economy situation straight, it needs to crack down on U.S. businesses and get what's rightful ours. Taxes on repatriated profits earned overseas could fund infrastructure and education improvements pushed by the Teamsters and Dimon.

Now that's how we make America stronger!

Bankster: 'That's why I'm richer than you'

Bailed-out bank CEO Jamie Dimon actually bragged that he's richer than an investor analyst -- to his face.

During an investor conference for JP Morgan Chase earlier this week, Dimon said, "That's why I'm richer than you."

Stay classy, Jamie.

Here's the transcript if you can't watch the video.

Mike Mayo, an analyst at CLSA, asked if JPMorgan Chase wasn’t at a competitive disadvantage compared to banks with more money in reserve. 

Mayo: I think what I hear UBS saying in the presentation is that if I’m an affluent customer I’ll feel a lot better going to UBS if they have 13.5 (percent) capital ratio than another big bank with a 10 percent ratio. Do you agree with that? 

Dimon: You would go to UBS and not JPMorgan? 

Mayo: I didn’t say that. That’s their argument. 

Dimon: That’s why I’m richer than you.

The real reason Jamie Dimon is richer than we are? Because taxpayers bailed him out.  And because we're still bailing him out.

What a swine.

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.

Whiny-baby bankster wants more love

Don't give him any.

Last week at the annual gathering of super-wealthy elitists in Davos, Switzerland, bankster Jamie Dimon whined for at least the 12th time about criticism of banks. They only, you know, caused the Great Recession. As the Economic Populist points out,

Most of us are worried about job security, stagnant incomes, loss of pensions and benefits, lack of health insurance, home foreclosures. But the banksters ..."think the biggest challenge for the industry is overcoming public anger about bonuses and compensation."

Here's Reuters reporting on Dimon's complaint:

...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.

Reuters notes that Dimon likes to maintain a regular-guy image. As one critic said, "he is a man of the people because he wants a hand in every wallet."

During his bankster career, Dimon and his banks have

• lobbied hard against protecting consumers from predatory banking practices
• ruthlessly collected as many fees as possible from credit card holders
• paid $1.3 million to state attorneys general for deceptive marketing practices
• sold dubious mortgages
• processed home seizures with illegitimate paperwork
• allegedly ripped off customers through its relationship with Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff

You will not be at all surprised to learn that Dimon took home more than $66 million in cash and stock since 2006.

Economist Simon Johnson blames the big banks for something even worse: causing the government's gigantic budget deficit. (Note: for those of you who think the bank bailout is over and "the TARP has been paid back," you're forgetting the trillions of dollars the Federal Reserve lent to banks at near-zero interest rates. Which, of course, they're lending to you at double-digit interest rates on your credit card.)

Writes Johnson in a terrific piece called "The Ruinous Fiscal Impact of Big Banks,"

Public deficits and debt ...have ballooned in the last three years for one simple reason – the big banks at the heart of our financial system blew themselves up. On this point, the conclusions of the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission, which appeared last week, are very clear and utterly compelling.

No one forced the banks to take on so much risk. Top bankers lobbied long and hard for the rules that allowed them to behave recklessly. And these same people effectively captured the hearts, minds and, some would say, pocketbooks of the regulators – in the sense that a well-regarded regulator can and often does go work for a bank afterward.

The mega-recession, which is starting to look more like a mini-depression in terms of employment terms for the United States (which lost 6 percent of employment and is still down 5 percent from the pre-crisis peak), caused a big decline in tax revenues.

So remember that budget deficits are not the fault of the teachers, firefighters, nurses, sanitation workers and other public employees who are losing pay, benefits and their jobs. They're the fault of those whiny-baby banksters.