Gentlemen Serving Gentlemen

Published by clickbroker.blogspot.com.

I remember reading some time ago an article about the demand for schools training professional household help such as butlers and residential managers. One leading school emphasized they train gentlemen and gentle ladies to serve gentle men and gentle ladies. The theme being the servant’s respect for his or herself and their contribution is as important as their contribution itself. Only with the recognition of mutual respect can excellence be achieved.

The underlying theme is civility. Neither respect nor civility can be achieved without sincerity. This caused me to take a deeper look into the political climate that evolved over the last few years. Many now seem to feel that the Tea Party movement has given them the freedom to act disrespectful and surface innuendoes that might have been taboo only two or three years ago.

As the Tea Party (in all its forms) is losing momentum, right-sided politicians and the corporate elite are becoming more disingenuous and less civil than at the height of the movement. I am particularly disturbed by JP Morgan’s (JPM) CEO Jamie Dimon. While JPM entered the financial crisis stronger than most financial institutions, it still benefited from the government in its opportunist acquisitions of Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual. The contagion following Lehman and AIG would not have left JPM unscathed without government intervention.

Whether he acknowledged the good of government or not, Jamie Dimon accumulated immense good will and political capital during and after the crisis. He often talked about JPM making sacrifices for the good of the country, such as accepting TARP. Then suddenly he changed.

Jamie Dimon’s unprecedented lobbying effort to shape or derail Dodd-Frank (FINREG) failed to be as effective as he desired. So now he’s blown the covers off his offensive. Like the politicians, Jamie Dimon has been emboldened by the Tea Party to be belligerent to his regulator and savior Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke.

Jamie Dimon is unhappy FINREG regulations are being developed for trading derivatives on exchanges, debit card swipe fee caps, and additional capital requirements for large systemically risky banks. But instead of working civilly with the Fed, he thinks the people are with him to fight the process. Unfortunately, this time Jamie Dimon is wrong.

Jamie Dimon is not being a gentleman serving the gentlemen of the Fed.

[JavaScript Games by Michael Steinberg: Color Splat Game, Magic Word Game and Scramble Word Game.]

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