Jamie Dimon has an uphill battle in the Senate
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Jamie Dimon has an uphill battle in the Senate
Stacey Vanek Smith: JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon goes in front of the Senate Banking Committee today. He’ll be trying to explain how his bank lost $2 billion in a recent trade.
Josh Brown is vice president of Fusion Analytics in New York and he joins us live. Good morning, Josh.
Josh Brown: Good morning.
Vanek Smith: So Josh, a lot of times these hearings seem a little bit like theater. What does this hearing mean?
Brown: They’re all theater, but this one has potential to mean a lot because, you know, we’re still in the process of trying to implement a lot of the provisions of Dodd-Frank, the financial regulatory overhaul, and one of those is the Volcker Rule, which is meant to keep banks out of the business of trading like hedge funds. And this is a perfect example of a big bank that everyone thought, if left to their own devices would be fine, and here we are talking about a surprise $2 billion loss from trading operations outside of the country.
Vanek Smith: It sounds like Jamie Dimon then is trying to convince Congress that this loss isn’t a sign that more regulation is needed, is that right?
Brown: No, of course. So the answer is less regulation, why didn’t I think of that? I think he’s got an uphill battle, because people don’t need to know the ins and outs in how was this trade put on, is it a hedge or not a hedge? What he’s got to do is really the impossible, which is take numbers like $2 billion, $100 billion in trading, $71 trillion in notional derivatives exposure, etc. — and he’s got to make those sound like there’s any rhyme or reason to them, to the American public and Congress. I just don’t think he can do it today.
Vanek Smith: Josh Brown is with Fusion Analytics. Thank you Josh.
Brown: Thank you.
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