Remember the London Whale? He was the guy who managed to double down on a bad position and lose J.P. Morgan about a gazillion a couple of years ago. Ok, bad things happen to good guys and even jerks but the ballon really went up when Jamie the Greek poo-pooed the whole thing with what amounted to "a billion here a billion there moment, who cares." Red meat to the thugs that ran the Justice Dept and the Financial overseers. penalties, fines, law suits and...wait for it...criminal prosecutions! The World's greatest Asst. Attorney General, Preet Baharra was all over this one. He was going to take down the Whale, the Greek and J.P. Morgan Chase itself. 'Ol,Preet was going to be bigger than the biggest Sacred Cow you ever did see. So he did what any good prosecutor would do. He flipped the supposed head perp in order to spear bigger fish...and then Trump won. Bye, bye Preet, but in the meantime, the Whale skates, rolls over on his two off-siders and the prosecution begins. But there were a couple of problems right from the start.
Preet had convinced the Whale to admit to all the bad things that had been done but then some kill-joys starting asking whether these events were crimes or acts of stupidity. Then of all things the bad guys decided to hire some pretty good counsel who were becoming some real pains to the new team in the Southern District and just last week the Whale decided that his guys didn't have anything to do with the bad stuff at all; the real blame was with Jaime and management. And he went public.
Now I happen to think that the Whale had this in mind all along and flat suckered Preet & Co. not that I have any evidence to support that theory but simply because I detest Preet and the slugs to whom he reported. But in the mean time, this exercise in arrogance has cost the shareholders of J.P. Morgan billions and as of Friday, his successor dropped all charges stating that the case...if there ever was a case...was unprovable. And the taxpayers, along with a half dozen other cases that have been thrown out or reversed, millions. Of course Preet and his mob where paid millions in bonuses as well. Who said thuggery (no pun intended) doesn't pay? No one I guess.
Second thought: the continued slide of the dollar especially against the Euro. I can't figure that one out. The common theme has been the solid performance of the EU economy but if one actually looks at the numbers, the U.S. Economy is (surprisingly) doing just as well if not better. American exports have never been higher...is that good for the Euro. American technology is becoming more and more dominant. Trump may be a complete jerk but as William Jefferson put it, "It's the economy, stupid:" jobs are up as is pay, unemployment is at record lows, confidence numbers are sky high. This keeps up, the guy is going to be hard to beat in mid-term elections despite the predictions of t he experts...and we know how right they have been in the past.
So, is it monetary policy? Today, the buzz word was "two and through," in so far as Fed was concerned. No tightening, low rates; but our ten year as opposed to the Bund right now? Hell, if that was the standard it's own dollars all day long. Besides, there WILL be another rate increase this year. So why? If anybody can help me out, let me know. In the mean time, I'll just keep thinking.
No comments:
Post a Comment