Head of J.P. Morgan Chase Jamie Dimon is currently being grilled by the Senate Banking Committe, but there was a time when he was “President Obama’s favorite banker” and “the most credible voice of a discredited industry” according to the New York Times.
Noting Dimon’s Chicago ties and meetings in Washington with Rahm Emanuel the Times added:
With the crisis, Mr. Dimon, a longtime Democratic donor, has become even more politically engaged, in the process becoming perhaps the most credible voice of a discredited industry. Other onetime giants like Citigroup and Bank of America find themselves muted as wards of the state.
Just last month on The View, Obama praised J.P. Morgan as “one of the best-managed banks there is” and that Dimon was “one of the smartest bankers we got.”
“The whole point was that even if you were smart, you could still make mistakes.” Obama said, making the case for additional Wall Street reform.
Under Dimon, J.P. Morgan recently lost more than $2 billion due to risky trading, sparking concern from Democrats that more regulation of Wall Street is needed.
