The boss of JP Morgan, the largest US bank, has said Donald Trump’s attacks on the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, are putting central bank independence at risk and could backfire and ultimately push up interest rates and inflation.
Jamie Dimon told reporters on Tuesday he had “enormous respect” for the Fed chair, who on Friday became the target of a controversial criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice (DoJ) over alleged “abuse of taxpayer dollars”.
Powell has denounced the investigation, linked to a $2.5bn (£1.9bn) renovation of the Fed’s headquarters in Washington DC, claiming it is punishment for not setting interest rates in line with the US president’s wishes.
Bankers fulfill a pretty important role, which is that they turn excess money that would otherwise be economically unproductive into economically productive loans. The world would be a lot worse without bankers.
All the negative behaviour associated with banking comes not from the bankers, the people who work at the branches writing loans and collecting deposits, but rather from finance bros at the top making the management decisions.
When a financial institution is ethically run, you tend to not think about it because it just quietly does its job in the background without making noise or causing trouble. You always hear about big banks in the news doing something shady but when have you heard about a credit union or building society ripping off their customers to the tune of hundreds of millions?
Lack of regulation… Lack of enforcement… Outrageous costs and profits… Fees fees fees and fines… Low to negative interest paid… Capital controls… Mandated inflation so 1$ earned is .90c spent. Too big to fail… Too big to jail… Dangerous gambling with fictional synthetic derivatives…