Attacking Jamie Dimon – Are the Protesters Looking Foolish?

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I have to wonder if the Protester are starting to look a bit foolish and uneducated?

The following excerpt was taken from “The Associated Press”:

At one point, protesters stopped in front of a building where they said Dimon, JPMorgan Chase chairman and CEO, has an apartment.

“Where’s our bailout?” they screamed. “How do we end this deficit? End the war, tax the rich!”

JPMorgan was among the banks that received federal bailout funds, and has since paid them back.

Dimon got supportive words Monday from Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who said, “He’s brought more business to this city than maybe any other banker in (the) modern day. … To go and picket him, I don’t know what that achieves. Jamie Dimon’s an honorable person working very hard. He pays his taxes.”

I have real problems with this kind of action, especially when people attack the heroes of the “Great Recession”.

This is why I have problems with the protesters attacking someone like Jamie Dimon:

  • JPMorgan Chase was one of the few banks that didn’t need a bailout, and they took it so other “real problem” banks wouldn’t be singled out. I know this because I followed the financial news from the beginning since I had some money invested back then, and I couldn’t figure out why JP Morgan participated.
  • JPMorgan paid back the bailout money and with interest to boot. So the government made a decent amount of profit off of a bank that didn’t need the bailout anyway.
  • Even the Mayor agrees that Jamie Dimon brought more business in and caused more people to be employed than maybe any other banker in the modern day! When the mayor then says “ To go and picket him, I don’t know what that achieves. Jamie Dimon’s an honorable person working very hard. He pays his taxes.” is significant because here he is risking alienating a group of potential voters. But if it doesn’t make sense (attacking Jamie Dimon), then how can you support the action morally and ethically?

So the protesters are barking up the wrong tree with Jamie Dimon in particular. If the dislike him so much perhaps he’ll go become the CEO of some foreign bank where he would be appreciated. Since Jamie is one of the brightest and most honest individuals in banking, attacking those that are honest, good, hard working people seems kind of dumb to me, not to mention dangerous! You see these type of people are the ones that think outside of the box, do you really want to make an enemy of them?

I was going to end my entire discussion about this matter with yesterday’s post called: Sacrifices Made On the Road To Become A Millionaire, but after reading about the one company (and man) that did the right thing during the housing debacle, it seems like it needed commented on. After all, we know that the majority of the mass media isn’t going to point out this error and injustice being performed.

Think about it from Mr. Dimon’s perspective. He pays his taxes, give to charity, did the right things during the “Great Recession“, and literally outside of his home there is a crowd of protesters single him out?!? That makes about as much sense as protesting the NY firefighters because the twin towers went down from the plane explosions and fires. The fire fighters didn’t cause the fire, they were just trying to help (again like JP Morgan taking a bailout even though they didn’t need to).

I just don’t understand how people can protest a person without knowing the facts. Especially when the individual represent the best American has to offer and help fix the problem?…

How would you like it if people came to your house and protested because your house is green in color, or you have a motorcycle, or some other criteria that singles you out and makes you a target? Would you feel like you are being discriminated against? I know I would, and I would be very bitter about it to boot!

Another analogy would be to attack Peyton Manning because he makes so much money, even though you want to Colts to do well because you are a fan. I think Colt fans have seen what it’s like without Manning playing this season, and it’s not pretty. What these particular Americans and the White House won’t realize is the effects from a superstar CEO like Jamie Dimon not playing or going to play for another team (country)… It wouldn’t be pretty either…

To me, the wise advice “Don’t bite the hand that feeds you” comes into play. In a day when globalization threatens the core middle class in America, these protesters focus their destructive energy on the people busting their butts doing positive things in American? Instead shouldn’t they be focusing their energies on the governmental policies that have enabled the mass exodus of jobs (NAFTA) and other stupid “near-sighted” governmental policies that are real problems that should be addressed?

If you have a great base of knowledge on Jamie Dimon, please chime in. Perhaps I’m wrong about him, tell me your thoughts and if you think he should be a target or if you are like me (and the mayor of the New York), think Mr. Dimon was more of a hero during the financial crisis…

Bests,

MR

Update: I found this interesting excerpt on Wikepedia about Jamie Dimon where even President Obama compliments Jamie Dimon:

Following the acquisition of Washington Mutual by JPMorganChase, President Barack Obama had this to say about Dimon’s handling of the real-estate crash, credit crisis, and the banking collapse affecting corporations nationwide, including major financial institutions like Bank Of America, Citibank, and Wachovia:

“ You know, keep in mind, though there are a lot of banks that are actually pretty well managed, JPMorgan being a good example, Jamie Dimon, the CEO there, I don’t think should be punished for doing a pretty good job managing an enormous portfolio

Now how is that for ironic!

19 thoughts on “Attacking Jamie Dimon – Are the Protesters Looking Foolish?”

    • Systemic Risk is a scary name for those of us that know what it means. For the protesters, apparently they don’t know what unemployment rates 40% or higher means to their quality of life.

      Yes, without the bank bailouts it would be a much darker, bleak place today (at least in the US).

      • Yeah, I think this protest will be water under the bridge in a few week, but it still irks me that people protest without knowing the entire facts, or because someone says jump.

    • Agreed. While I don’t necessarily agree with bailouts because it gives a false sense of security, a large amount of people unemployed isn’t good either. It really makes you wonder what the solution is to these kinds of economic crisis. Every possible alternative has a down side.

      • The sad thing is that the unemployment and housing issues are really two different problems. Banks are not the cause of unemployment, instead they enable businesses to borrow money to hire employees and make payroll.

        IMHO, I think that the government just tries to fix the symptoms instead of the actual problem. Now they are blaming all of their problems on the wealthy…

    • It’s sad that they chose Jamie Dimon as one of there targets. He seem to be a class act and genuinely a nice guy.

  3. wow, talk about playing the blame game on the wrong guy!

    This shows that the level of frustration is running so high just anyone will do the job to take it out on.

  4. The protesters are just lashing out. I think it is indiscriminate. Maybe over timethey will get focused on the real problem before they are discounted as complainers.

  5. I must agree too. Things that don’t sound fair or equal on paper, are much better overall.Systemic Risk is really a scary reputation for those of us that understand what this means. For the protesters, apparently they don’t know what unemployment rates 40% or more way to their standard of living.

    • Even where I work at (a financial firm), so of the employees didn’t understand the danger. I was very afraid of a Great Depression, or worse!

    • I think so too, but when even President Obama says “Hey this guy is great” (paraphrased of course), how can you protest at that guys door? How could run a company better than Mr. Dimon? I can’t think of anyone…

    • lol, let me explain this with an analogy.
      You’re walking down the street, someone trips (the London whale) and you fall, does that mean that you are clumsy?

      I don’t see how your comment has any reflection on the character of Jamie Dimon!

      Perhaps if he tried to cover up this mistake done by an employee overseas or didn’t express that it was a horrible mistake and bring it out in the open or try to cover it up or hide it in any way, that would demean the character of the man, but just an almost invisible employee overseas makes a mistake doesn’t demean him in any way. In fact I have more respect for the man, not less. And since this will blow over by year end, who cares?

      And now a final question… How does this affect you, or even the public in general? I’m still a shareholder, I’m not sweating it.

      You’re digging my friend… digging…

      P.S. I read that article, and it’s kind of naive… Banks don’t get bailed out typical (look in years past prior to 2007, it hasn’t happened…). Plus I fully expect our government to make money on the bailout… You won’t hear about that, but even AIG is paying the money back to the government at a profit… GM and Ford… well they aren’t banks are they… 😉

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