Wall Street Is Even More Craven Than We Thought
WASHINGTON ― Democrats used to see Jamie Dimon as one of the good guys on Wall Street. Once hailed as a “progressive” by The New Republic, the JPMorgan Chase CEO counted himself friends with two different chiefs of staff to President Barack Obama and traveled to the first black White House no less than 16 times. In 2009, The New York Times described him as “Obama’s favorite banker.” He has publicly supported same-sex marriage and the legalization of undocumented immigrants.
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But there was Dimon on Friday, sitting at a table surrounded by other wealthy corporate executives, being praised by President Donald Trump ― a man who publicly supports war crimes and is already flirting with a constitutional crisis as he implements a campaign promise to impose “a complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.”
“There’s nobody better to tell me about Dodd-Frank than Jamie,” Trump said, smiling and pointing his finger at Dimon. Within hours, the president had signed an executive order calling for federal agencies to scour a 2010 Wall Street reform law for regulations that could be nullified.
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But there was important symbolic meaning to Trump’s daylong celebration of Wall Street. The president was telling America that Dimon and the other CEOs assembled in Washington were on his team, united in the same cause as chief strategist Steve Bannon and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Those concerned that Trump is pursuing a white nationalist agenda by deliberately attempting to provoke global military conflict can rest easy after Friday: Responsible financiers, including Jamie Dimon, are at the table.
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"Few would insist Dimon agrees with Trump on every issue. But that is not the pressing moral issue of the day. The question is whether political and commercial elites will allow themselves to be co-opted by the Trump regime in pursuit of their own narrow interests. Dimon’s attendance on Friday, and a host of recent enthusiastic comments he has made about the Trump administration, demonstrate he cares more about bank deregulation than the persecution of minorities.
Dimon can make loads of money from the evisceration of Dodd-Frank. There is a reason he opposed creating a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has returned more than $11 billion to families wronged by banks, payday lenders and other firms since its inception. There is a reason he fought efforts to rein in the derivatives market that sank AIG; a reason he blasted the Volcker Rule, which aimed to prevent banks from speculating in securities markets with taxpayer-backed funding. The profit motive is real, and as Friday’s event showed, it is often more powerful than conscience.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/jamie-dimon-donald-trump_us_589670cce4b09bd304bbb417?
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