"Financial institutions such as JPMorgan love to buy derivatives because they are opaque, create fictional income that leads to real bonuses, and when, not if, they suffer losses so large that they would cause the bank to fail, they will be bailed out."
William K Black
This is JP Morgan, America's mightiest and unsinkable 'showcase bank,' run by its toughest and craftiest CEO, that holds the counterparty risk on an almost unimaginable $70 TRILLION in derivatives, an amount sufficient to destroy not only their own balance sheet, but probably the entire world's financial system as well, over a weekend.
And Greece is irresponsible.
Are you fucking kidding me?
Sleep well.
Bloomberg
JPMorgan Gave Risk Oversight to Museum Head Who Sat On AIG Board
By Dawn Kopecki and Max Abelson
May 24, 2012
The three directors who oversee risk at JPMorgan Chase & Co. include a museum head who sat on American International Group Inc.’s governance committee in 2008, the grandson of a billionaire, and the chief executive officer of a company that makes flight controls and work boots.
What the risk committee of the biggest U.S. lender lacks, and what the five next largest competitors have, are directors who worked at a bank or as financial risk managers. The only member with any Wall Street experience, James Crown, hasn’t been employed in the industry for more than 25 years...
Read the rest here.
Office of the Comptroller of the Currency 4th Quarter 2011 Derivatives Report
The Pigman's Motto:
If you make people frightened enough, they will give you anything.
