Jamie Dimon of J. P. Morgan Chase Presides Over Huge Trading Loss – Earns Millions in Compensation

Just Think How Much He Would be Paid if he Actually was a Good Manager

Earlier this year there were reports in the news that a trading division of J. P. Morgan Chase was doing all sorts of bad things. But CEO Jamie Dimon ‘pish poshed’ the idea.

J. P. Morgan Chase CEO Showing the Size
of his . . . Compensation Check

The trading group has been a focus in recent weeks as questions surfaced about big bets the JPMorgan unit was reportedly making in credit default swaps. Reports emerged in April about a JPMorgan trader in London whose positions were so big that they were distorting the market.

Mr. Dimon played down the significance. In a conference call on April 13, he called the matter “a complete tempest in a teapot.”

“Every bank has a major portfolio. In those portfolios you make investments that you think are wise to offset your exposures,” Mr. Dimon said in the April call. “At the end of the day, that is our job — is to invest that portfolio wisely, intelligently over a long period of time to earn income and to offset other exposures that we have.”

But funny how things can turn out.

JPMorgan Chase disclosed on Thursday that a trading group had suffered “significant” losses in a portfolio of credit investments, with the chief executive, Jamie Dimon, estimating losses at $2 billion in a conference call.

“These were egregious mistakes,” Mr. Dimon said on the call. “They were self-inflicted and this is not how we want to run a business.”

Really, losing $2 billion is not how Mr. Dimon wants to run a business.  Who would have guessed it?  Wow, no wonder he is the head man and gets the big bucks.

Speaking of big bucks Mr. Dimon is one of those bankers who complains that his compensation is too limited, that government shouldn’t keep him from earning tens of millions just because his bank had to be bailed out by the taxpayers.

And GE Jack Welch, the man who thinks women are just not dedicated enough to be CEO’s maybe needs to re-think his hypothesis.  There must be thousands of women who could be running J. P. Morgan and lose less than $2 billion in a trading units.  But then Mr. Dimon wouldn’t get his multi-million dollar salary would he.