Monday, April 5, 2010

The real threat to the country

The Wege asks an interesting question, "is there any foreign threat to the well being of this nation half as menacing as the threat posed by Wall Street and our predator class capitalist overlords?"  He "couldn’t think of a single nation that qualified except maybe the old Soviet Union ten years down the road after a major meth epidemic."  Seems like the Wege and Johnson of MIT reached roughly the same conclusion through some quite different thought processes.
Jamie Dimon: The Most Dangerous Man In America
Simon Johnson
MIT Professor and co-author of 13 Bankers
Posted: April 3, 2010 09:44 AM
There are two kinds of bankers to fear. The first is incompetent and runs a big bank. This includes such people as Chuck Prince (formerly of Citigroup) and Ken Lewis (Bank of America). These people run their banks onto the rocks -- and end up costing the taxpayer a great deal of money. But, on the other hand, you can see them coming and, if we ever get the politics of bank regulation straightened out again, work hard to contain the problems they present.
The second type of banker is much more dangerous. This person understands how to control risk within a massive organization, manage political relationships across the political spectrum, and generate the right kind of public relations. When all is said and done, this banker runs a big bank and -- here's the danger -- makes it even bigger.
Jamie Dimon is by far the most dangerous American banker of this or any other recent generation. more

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