The Price of Evil at JPMorgan Chase

FOLLOW THE MONEY
Johann Wagener 3-23-13

This was the headline in 2009

WASHINGTON -- JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon on Wednesday made the case that the government should step aside and allow big banks to fail when they mismanage their investments.

But Dimon's own bank, the biggest in the U.S., received a $25 billion taxpayer bailout in 2008. At least one Democratic senator said JPMorgan would have collapsed -- and Dimon would have been out of a job -- if the government hadn't come to its aid.

And here is the headline today;

$16 billion.

That’s how much JPMorgan Chase has paid in fines, settlements and other litigation expenses in the last four years alone. 

More than half of that amount, $8.5 billion, was paid out in fines and settlements as the result of illegal actions taken by bank executives.

$8.5 billion is almost 12 percent of the net income the mega-bank brought in during the same period. The Price of Evil at JPMorgan Chase

So, if my math is correct it looks like taxpayers gave JP and the gang the money to bail themselves out of jail. rather than letting them fail and throw their execs in jail we kicked in $25 billion in tax dollars to keep them afloat which allowed them to recover, repay the loan and the $16 billion in fines (so far) which they would not have been able to without the bailout. 

The US government is actually subsidizing criminal organizations and no one seem the wiser.