Dimon and the Fed’s Legitimacy

print
Paper_Icon

There are two diametrically opposed views of how the largest financial companies in our economy operate. On the one hand are views like those of Charles Ferguson, director of the Academy Award-winning documentary “Inside Job” and author of the new book, “Predator Nation.” Mr. Ferguson takes the view that greed and immorality now prevail to an excessive degree at the heart of Wall Street.

Academics and other experts have become corrupted, the responsible regulators have been intellectually captured, and law enforcement officials refuse to act – despite the accumulation of evidence before their eyes.

“Inside Job” was gripping and emotional; “Predator Nation” contains many more specific details and evidence, as an excerpt dealing with academics (one Republican and one Democrat) makes clear.

The second view is that the people in charge of large banks and bank holding companies have done nothing wrong. To see this view in action, look no further than this week’s debate about whether Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, should resign from the board of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

Read more here.

Issues: Banking and Finance, Financial Markets, Securitization, Too Big To Fail

Related Articles:

About the Author

Simon Johnson

Professor of Entrepreneurship, MIT Sloan School of Management

Simon_Johnson

Simon Johnson is the Ronald A. Kurtz (1954) Professor of Entrepreneurship at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a Professor of Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management. He is also a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington, D.C., a co-founder of BaselineScenario.com (a much ...

Related Experts

Damon_Silvers

Damon A. Silvers

Associate General Counsel, AFL-CIO

Timothy_Canova

Timothy Canova

Professor of Law and Public Finance, Nova Southeastern University

Bob_Borosage

Robert Borosage

Founder and President, Institute for America’s Future
Co-Director, Campaign for America’s Future

blh