DIMON SPEECH TO U.S CHAMBER OF COMMERCE IN WASHINGTON D.C MARCH 12, 2009.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=1058977582&play=1
In a strong speech before the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Jamie Dimon, Chairman & CEO of JP Morgan Chase & Co., gave a primer on how we got into the economic maelstrom we are currently facing and how we might get out.
Why do I believe we would be better off if Mr. Dimon was in fact the Secretary of the Treasury instead of Little Timmy ("Talk to the Box") Geithner?
Why do I see so many parallels between the development of the financial crisis and the steroid crisis in baseball?
I guess Mr. Dimon would be a good candidate for next Commissioner of Baseball as well.
He states the problems eloquently and believably.
He admits to personal missteps he made along the way.
He has the best interests of the industry and the country at large as well as his own constituency (company).
Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke made a similar speech to the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday, laced with mea culpas, but also filled with an understanding of how we got into the mess and a template for getting out.
It's time we hear more from the guys with grey hair or no hair and less from the children who would lead us. They need to go back to the sandbox where they belong.
I hope the Congress listened to both Dimon and Bernanke and will act on the template they provided. The sooner the better. Then perhaps we can convince Jamie Dimon to be the next Commish of Baseball.
That would be a HUUUUGE improvement.
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Some of the highlights of Dimon's speech included:
On the need for the country to pull together begin working together Dimon delivered a very impassioned defense of his firm and his industry's behavior.
Dimon noted his employees worked 24/7 with the Paulson people during the initial stages of the crisis Lehman and Bear Stearns went down and Washington Mutual, Wachovia and IndyMac followed. Clearly he is tired of the Congressional vilification, the grand-standing and the bashing of Wall Street.
“When I hear the constant vilification of corporate America, I personally don’t understand it.I would ask a lot of our folks in government to stop doing it because I think it’s hurting our country.”
On his personal mistakes that added to the problem:
“My biggest mistake, probably of my whole career, was not closing down our mortgage broker business sooner,” Dimon said, citing a loss rate two to three times higher on loans not originated by the bank.
On the need for further regulation in the industry:
“We need to regulate the entire mortgage industry” and also stressed that “JUST BECAUSE REGULATORS LET YOU DO SOMETHING DOESN’T MEAN YOU SHOULD DO IT.”
He noted that bad regulation drives out good regulation, and Basel II allowed companies to become over-leveraged. Excess leverage was in the entire system.
We need to get accounting under control, mark to market accounting is fine but it has come to a ridiculous point....Certain marks create too much volatility.....too much flexibility in accounting that is not accurate.
He thinks that there are too many regulators with overlapping responsibilities and with no real authority. Dimon actually feels that the regulators need more authority.
On the need for us to pull together and pull through this:
“If we act like a dysfunctional family and we don’t finish these things and we’re forever debating them, I think this will go on for several year. It’s completely up to us at this point.”
To those who are worried about losing money due to write-downs or cram-downs: “GET OVER IT
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