(Limbaugh once again blames mortgage collapse on the government)
Ever since Wall Street was bailed out and the anger rose in the public's mind over what they did to the global economy, CEO's and other big time moneymakers have been acting like they live on another planet. It's hard living on millions of dollars a year, isn't it? The latest poutage is coming from The head of JPMorgan Chase & Co.
This might be the stupidest thing I've heard from the real entitlement society so far.
"When profits fall too sharply then capital will move somewhere else, where there is more money to be earned, for example non-regulated markets," Chief Executive Jamie Dimon said in the German mass circulation Sunday paper Welt am Sonntag.
"The question is, is that what regulators want?," said Dimon who heads the second-largest U.S. bank.
Dimon has been an outspoken critic of the Obama administration's proposed financial regulatory reforms, particularly of a proposed bailout fee on big banks which he has called a "punitive bank tax.
In the German interview, he also said the banking industry could do with more influence on politicians.
Both the industry and government wanted what was best for their country and the economic system but there were areas where the banks lacked possibilities to demonstrate their arguments to politicians and supply them with the right facts, he said.
This almost left me speechless. Do I really need to give you guys context and demonstrate how the Senate lives to fulfill all of their needs?
Let's take a look at Jamie Dimon and JP Morgan via the AFL-CIO:
In February 2010, Dimon received nearly $8 million in restricted stock units as part of his 2009 annual compensation. In addition to this stock award for 2009, he also received an additional $6,244,300 in special stock appreciation rights that vest over five years.[3]
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According to the Los Angeles Times, JPMorgan Chase spent more than any other bank on lobbying in 2009. JPMorgan Chase boosted its lobbying expenses 13 percent in 2009 to $6.2 million, enough to pay for more than 30 lobbyists.[5]
And JP Morgan spent the most via the LA Times:
Even as the financial industry has sought to keep a low public profile, some of the country's largest banks have ramped up their spending on lobbying to fight off some of the stiffest regulatory proposals pending in Congress.
Lobbying expenditures jumped 12% from 2008 to $29.8 million last year among the eight banks and private equity firms that spent the most to influence legislation, according to data compiled from disclosure forms filed with Congress.
The biggest spender was JPMorgan Chase & Co., whose lobbying budget rose 12% to $6.2 million, enough for the firm to have more than 30 lobbyists working for it. Among other banks, spending on lobbying rose 27% at Wells Fargo & Co. and 16% at Morgan Stanley.
"I have never seen such a scrum of bank lobbyists as I have in the last year -- and I've worked on quite a few bank issues over the years," said Ed Mierzwinski, a lobbyist for the U.S. Public Interest Research Group, a coalition of state consumer organizations. "It seems like everybody is out of work except for bank lobbyists."
