Whither Europe: Greece’s leading pro-bailout party—conservative New Democracy, which won Sunday’s elections, and socialist Pasok—are still negotiating to form a coalition to govern the teetering nation. Assuming a deal gets done, the first task will be to convince Europe to rewrite the Greek rescue agreement to provide more time—and financing—to meet Read More
Or at least not much: An industrious chap at The New York Times held Jamie Dimon’s prepared remarks to the Senate Banking Committee last week next to testimony posted on the website of the House Financial Services Committee, before which Mr. Dimon will appear tomorrow, and found that the two documents were virtually the same.
Which is a bit of a drag. Mr. Dimon’s Senate testimony last week was so uneventful that the punditry took to remarking on the JPMorgan chief executive officer’s couture—and sure, we can play that game: We’d like to suggest that Mr. Dimon’s presidential cufflinks were a ploy to distract observers from the substance of his testimony, but given the snooze-fest in the Senate last week, it was more likely a test to see who was staying awake. Read More
Whither Europe: “The Spanish government has very limited financial market access,” Moody’s said in a statement yesterday to announce the ratings company had cut Spain’s grade three levels to Baaa3, one level above junk. Spain’s borrowing cost on 10-year bonds hovered near 7 percent, up from 5.1 percent at the beginning of the year. Moody’s also cut Cyprus’s grade on fears of contagion following the results of the Greece’s June 17 elections.
The downgrade didn’t prevent Spain’s Amancio Ortega, founder of retail giant Inditex, from becoming Europe’s richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaire Index.
“We have no sense that European partners will follow this tactic of blackmail heard from some quarters and stop funding,” Alex Tsipras, leader of Greece’s anti-bailout Syriza party told Bloomberg Television. Rather, Mr. Tsipras thinks that Greece can break the terms of the European rescue agreement signed by a previous Greek government without being forced to exit the eurozone. Read More
The Jamie Dimon who testified at Senate Banking Committee hearings today was a toned down version of the spontaneous, cocksure executive that we’ve come to know and love.
Mr. Dimon’s mouth, of course, got him into trouble in recent weeks, when he told investors that early sightings of the so-called London Whale—a trader in JPMorgan’s Read More
Whither Europe: Greeks are withdrawing $1 billion daily and hording dry foods ahead of June 17 elections that may hasten the country’s exit from Europe’s monetary union.
An ill-timed acquisition has made Credit Agricole the foreign bank with the most to lose in the Greek crisis.
Despite Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Read More
Jamie Dimon is slated to testify on JPMorgan’s recent $2.3 billion (and counting) in trading losses at a Senate Banking Committee hearing tomorrow, and his prepared remarks are getting around. It’s banal stuff, and if you want to know just how banal, a good test would be to read Mr. Dimon’s testimony against Read More
Seeking redress: The bankruptcy trustee assigned to recover claims on MF Global’s U.S. brokerage unit pointed a finger at Jon S. Corzine, erstwhile CEO of the failed broker-dealer, in a 275-page report published yesterday. James Giddens, the trustee, may pursue claims of “breach of fiduciary duty and negligence” against Mr. Corzine and other Read More
For months, financial wags have been arguing over whether hard times at investment banks are cyclical downturn or representative of more permanent, secular change. (Jamie Dimon: “
Nomura’s board opposed the proposal. In other news, Nomura raised executive pay 79 percent last fiscal year, even as net income plunged 60 percent and shares Read More
Squeeze play: JPMorgan has been selling profitable securities to prop up second-quarter results after the bank’s chief investment office and the trader known as the London Whale incurred billions in losses. The asset sales may be tax inefficient, and will deprive the lender of future gains, which is just too bad for Jamie Dimon’s firm. With its share price down 18 percent from the day before the trading losses were first reported, JPMorgan is under pressure to generate earnings. Read More
From the JPMorgan chief executive officer who won’t say what’s in the hedging position that cost his shareholders $2.3 billion, but you know, is owning responsibility for the losses and wants you to rest assured that the position will be wound down by the end of the year, somehow, comes a rather soft RSVP to the congressional Read More
