Wall Street Is Even More Craven Than We Thought

Bloomberg via Getty Images WASHINGTON ― Democrats used to see Jamie Dimon as one of the good guys on Wall Street. Once hailed as a “progressive” by The New Republic, the JPMorgan Chase CEO counted himself friends with two different chiefs of staff to President Barack Obama and traveled to the first black White House no less than 16 times. In 2009, The New York Times described him as “Obama’s favorite banker.” He has publicly supported same-sex marriage and the legalization of undocumented immigrants. Dimon gave hundreds of thousands to Democratic Party candidates, the party itself, and even the Center for American Progress, a think tank advancing the ideas of Bill Clinton and Obama. But there was Dimon on Friday, sitting at a table surrounded by other wealthy corporate executives, being praised by President Donald Trump ― a man who publicly supports war crimes and is already flirting with a constitutional crisis as he implements a campaign promise to impose “a complete and total shutdown of Muslims entering the United States.” “There’s nobody better to tell me about Dodd-Frank than Jamie,” Trump said, smiling and pointing his finger at Dimon. Within hours, the president had signed an executive order calling for federal agencies to scour a 2010 Wall Street reform law for regulations that could be nullified. True to Trump’s reality TV background, the day was more pageantry than policy. He doesn’t need a press conference and an executive order to void Obama’s regulations. He can simply appoint regulators who quietly fail to enforce them. But there was important symbolic meaning to Trump’s daylong celebration of Wall Street. The president was telling America that Dimon and the other CEOs assembled in Washington were on his team, united in the same cause as chief strategist Steve Bannon and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Those concerned that Trump is pursuing a white nationalist agenda by deliberately attempting to provoke global military conflict can rest easy after Friday: Responsible financiers, including Jamie Dimon, are at the table. In a statement provided to HuffPost, JPMorgan Chase recoiled at the idea that Dimon is enthusiastic about Trump’s full policy platform. “It’s absurd to equate speaking constructively with someone to endorsing all of their views,” bank spokesman Andrew Gray said. Few would insist Dimon agrees with Trump on every issue. But that is not the pressing moral issue of the day. The question is whether political and commercial elites will allow themselves to be co-opted by the Trump regime in pursuit of their own narrow interests. Dimon’s attendance on Friday, and a host of recent enthusiastic comments he has made about the Trump administration, demonstrate he cares more about bank deregulation than the persecution of minorities. Dimon can make loads of money from the evisceration of Dodd-Frank. There is a reason he opposed creating a new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which has returned more than $11 billion to families wronged by banks, payday lenders and other firms since its inception. There is a reason he fought efforts […]

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