poet1

The Financial Light at the End of the Tunnel?

HOW DOES THIS FIGURE- JPM WAS INVOLVED IN THE VISA IPO & NOW THEY SAY THEY WILL LOSE MONEY ON CREDIT CARDS.....

JPMorgan Expects Banking, Cards to Post Lower Profit (Update2)
By Elizabeth Hester

May 12 (Bloomberg) -- JPMorgan Chase & Co., the third- biggest U.S. bank, will post lower earnings from investment banking and credit cards this quarter as the U.S. recession gets under way, Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon said.

JPMorgan is seeing lower revenue growth in its credit-card business and will probably have to set aside more money to cover bad loans in that unit, as well as in retail and investment banking, Dimon said today at a conference in New York sponsored by UBS AG.

``The recession is just starting,'' Dimon said. ``I don't know if it will be mild or severe.'' The chances of it being ``pretty bad'' are about one in three, the 52-year-old CEO said.

JPMorgan has posted about $10 billion of writedowns and losses since the beginning of last year, compared with more than $40 billion at bigger rival Citigroup Inc. Dimon said the capital markets crisis sparked by last year's collapse of the subprime mortgage market is about 75 percent over.

In home lending, New York-based JPMorgan expects to lose $200 million to $250 million in the second quarter related to subprime mortgages. Losses in prime mortgages, those made to people with the highest credit rating, could increase to about $100 million for the quarter, the bank said.

Dimon also said the integration of Bear Stearns Cos. was ``proceeding well,'' though he urged analysts to wait a year before judging whether the deal was a success. Once the fifth- biggest U.S. securities firm, Bear Stearns was forced to agree to the takeover on March 16 after customers and lenders fled because of speculation that the company faced a cash shortage.

JPMorgan has found jobs for about 40 percent of Bear Stearns's more than 14,000 employees, Dimon said today. All employment decisions are expected by June 1.

JPMorgan, up 8.2 percent on the New York Stock Exchange this year, rose 67 cents to $47.24 at 4:18 p.m.

To contact the reporter on this story: Elizabeth Hester in New York at [e-mail].

Last Updated: May 12, 2008 16:19 EDT

Bear Stearns’ Bailout by the Fed, JPM: A Century Old Conspiracy

C.Y.A.

The Coming Crash of 2008: A Result of Overleveraging

DrMalaka- well said! So, where do you put your money?

The Coming Crash of 2008: A Result of Overleveraging

From Fast Food Nation 2002: (glass/s act)
The history of the 20th century was dominated by the struggle against totalitarian systems of state power. The 21st will no doubt be marked by a struggle to curtail excessive corporate power. The great challenge now facing countries throughout the world is how to find a proper balance between the efficiency and the amorality of the market. Over the past 20 years, the U.S. has swung too far in one direction... (p. 261)

I think Schlosser has it right. Enron is an inflection point for the forces of corporate power. Today's Times reports that the "bankruptcy reform bill" that passed both houses of Congress last March -- a bill practically written by credit card companies to make it harder for consumers to wipe debt of their records by filing for bankruptcy -- is now up for revision:

Some lawmakers are weighing whether to revise provisions that could appear anti-consumer and poltically unseemly after a corporate collapse that hurt thousands of workers and investors. "Even some of the lobbyists who supported the bill tell me that they are afraid to touch it now," Senator Leahy said.

I'm interested to watch the degree that consolodations will now break apart. Tyco spent the last five years acquiring at a massive rate; now it will split into a series of independent companies, sometimes even using corporate names left in the dust two or three years ago. The Glass-Segal act, a law passed in the 1930s that mandated a separation of lending and investment banking, was repealed in 1999. Now, Congress is discussing reinstating the act (though the Times calls the odds of reinstatement "very unlikely."). In politics, a swing to the left may be beginning. An abashed liberal president? Could happen in 2008. Maybe even 2004. Good news for John Kerry? Good news for Anti-Trust Attorneys?
· How Will Washington Read the Signs? [NY Times]

The Big Whoosh: Is This The Beginning?

Follow the money. My grandpa did the depression & thats what he taught me. Did anyone ever think that there are those out there that want the system to collapse, so they make a trillion, while the peasants go hungry? Do you really think the JPMorgan of that era wasn't laughing all the way to the bank? The ghost still laughs

Bear Stearns Gets Emergency Funding From NY Fed, JP Morgan

TONY S- terrible analogy & way too long. Try 2 sentences

What Are Brokers' Exposures to Carlyle Capital?

How great is the possibility that Citigroup will go bankrupt? If all these other shoes are set to drop, & Citi is playing down their problems-