At the J.P. Morgan Chase shareholders' meeting this week, Jamie Dimon got stern with the people who pay his salary and extravagant bonuses.
LA Times' Michael Hiltzik:
You might think that the chairman and CEO of a major bank that had just pleaded guilty to a federal felony charge and has paid out more than $20 billion in legal settlements in recent years would show a little humility.
But then you wouldn't be reckoning with Jamie Dimon, the head of JPMorgan Chase. At an investment conference in New York this week, Dimon lashed out at institutional investors who voted against his pay package and his dual role as the firm's chairman and chief executive, and otherwise rejected management's wishes on shareholder resolutions at the annual meeting May 19.
Damn those lazy investors for wanting to take even a shred of his power away! Curse them!
"God knows how any of you can place your vote based on ISS or Glass Lewis," Dimon said petulantly at a conference sponsored by Sanford C. Bernstein & Co., as the crowd tittered nervously. (The audio can be found here.) "If you do that, you are just irresponsible, I'm sorry. And you're probably not a very good investor either.... I know some of you do it because you're lazy."
What may have irked Dimon the most is that the results of the shareholder voting reflected comparative disaffection with JPMorgan's performance--though not enough for any of the shareholder proposals to win. Some 38.2% of shares were voted against the pay package for Dimon and other top executives, an outcome accurately described by the Financial Times as "a sizeable revolt from major institutional investors." Read on...
Poor, poor baby! Who will soothe his furrowed brow and ruffled feathers? Not me. I'd like to ruffle them until he turns inside out.
Arrogant jerk, thy name is Jamie Dimon.
