Most people are under the false assumption that the taxpayer bailout of Wall Street banks began and ended with TARP. They couldn't be more wrong.
The Wall Street bank bailout began with Federal Reserve subsidies in December 2007, and has continued in one form or another right up to now.
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. is nearing a deal that would allow it to benefit from a tax refund of as much as $1.4 billion, becoming the latest company to tap a little-noticed plank in an economic stimulus bill.
That law let companies apply losses from 2008 or 2009 against taxes paid in the previous five years, instead of the previous two years.
The law in question is supposed to preclude TARP banks like JP Morgan Chase, which got $25 Billion from taxpayers it has since repaid, from using this tax break to their benefit.
However, JP Morgan Chase is using a loophole - their acquisition of Washington Mutual in 2008.
Failed Seattle thrift Washington Mutual Inc. is eligible for about $2.6 billion in tax refunds, thanks to big losses in 2008. Now J.P. Morgan, which took over WaMu's banking operations in September 2008, is in discussions with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and bondholders about the refund.
To put this into perspective, JPM paid $1.9 Billion in 2008 to acquire Washington Mutual and its $327 Billion in assets. Now it will get nearly all of that money back in the form of a tax refund.
Recall that JPM was the bank that acquired Bear Stearns in 2008 for just $236 Million, or just $2 a share when Bear Stearns stock was trading at several times that moments before the takeover was announced. This only happened after the Fed extended a $30 Billion loan to JPM.
JP Morgan Chase has been on quite a roll recently. For instance, last year they were involved in a bribery scandal.
JPMorgan Chase & Co. has agreed to pay $75 million in fines and forfeit $647 million in fees to settle federal regulators' charges that it made unlawful payments to friends of public officials to win municipal bond business in Jefferson County, Ala.
...
The move lowers Jefferson County's bond debt to about $3.2 billion from $3.9 billion, but officials had no immediate comment on whether that was enough to help the county avoid filing what would be the largest municipal bankruptcy ever.
And remember the AIG bailout? Well, JPM got $1.2 Billion from that as well.
If you want to go back a few years, JP Morgan's shady dealings was also involved in the failure of WorldCom.
J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. said Wednesday it would pay $2 billion to settle an investor lawsuit brought after an $11 billion accounting scandal forced WorldCom Inc. to declare the largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.
JPM was also involved with a $7 Billion phantom muni bond scandal in 2006.
And, of course, JPM was directly involved in the Enron accounting scandal.
We even find JPM involved with rigging the Japanese copper market in the 90's.
Not to anyone's surprise, JP Morgan was also involved with the complex derivatives that Bernie Madoff used to steal from his investors.
It seems like JP Morgan Chase has had its dirty fingers in every underhanded, illegal scam on Wall Street over the last decade or so, and yet somehow manages to get all these wonderful, taxpayer funded deals.
Great post and here's a Zombie Finance link
And speaking of Zombie Finance....
Not just a simple purchase
while Jamie Dimon, CEO of JP Morgan, served on board of directors for FRBNY, FRBNY creates Maiden Lane I to assist JP Morgan with purchase of Bear Stearns. Actually Dimon still serves on the board of FRBNY
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
To be expected, RebelCapitalist ...
...it's about "the prevalence" -- FRBNY favors NY bankers, and, of course, Jamie Dimon is a NY banker.
Right....?
Favors?
It controls FRBNY. FRBNY, as you know James, holds a special position in the Fed Reserve System besides being a stones throw from Wall Street.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
RebelCapitalist.com - Financial Information for the Rest of Us.
Just my sarcastic streak
Of course I'm being facetious -- would anyone trust a man over the age of 13 years who goes by the name "Jamie"?
JP Morgan claims unemployment benefits increase unemployment
by 1.5%.
Serial! here.
I forgot how many jobs JP Morgan Chase offshore outsourced after getting TARP funds....
I know Citigroup did a $2 billion dollar deal to finish offshore outsourcing any tech job that managed to sneak by (who do you virtually move a computer into a room and plug in the cables?)
JPM offshoring
I don't know the number of jobs, but I can tell you how much they spent doing it - $400 million. That much money will outsource a lot of jobs.
But they are worried about people being on unemployment. It's almost as if they think that working people are a lower class of human being.
the road to serfdom
They do look at the U.S. middle class, the American workforce as peasants and that includes professionals, PhDs, high skilled labor. Yup, they have the gall to turn the American work experience into Schindler's List and then insult people for a mere paltry sum to keep them from starving.
BofA and Wells Fargo won't be paying taxes
It isn't just JPM.
JPM in yet another scandal
Add another line to JPM's rap sheet.
JPMorgan Chase X-File Updated
Just to keep the JPM Chase corruption file updated:
From this gold site we read:
Does anyone know of any market JPM Chase ISN'T manipulating?