I'm not going to waste time here getting to the point -- if there was ever a question of Wall Street and big financial institution insanity, this is it. I can't wait to hear Elizabeth Warren's take on this:
A year after an embarrassing trading blowup led to millions of dollars being docked from Jamie Dimon’s paycheck, the chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase is getting a raise.
JPMorgan’s board voted this week to increase Mr. Dimon’s annual compensation for 2013, hashing out the pay package after a series of meetings that turned heated at times, according to several executives briefed on the matter. The raise — the details were not made public on Thursday — follows a move by the board last year to slash Mr. Dimon’s compensation by half, to $11.5 million.
Recap time. Chairman and Chief Executive Dimon (in the rough) leads a bank in committing financial malfeasance. His misdeeds are acknowledged in two ways. His salary is halved (to a paltry $11.5 million) in admitting there was wrongdoing on his part in overseeing the company. That makes sense. A firing would make more sense, but perhaps the golden parachute payout would have been more than cutting his salary.
But here's the other part I don't understand. The wrongdoing on CEO Dimon's part led to JPMorgan Chase paying out $20 BILLION in penalties. This isn't chump change or a small fine. These are record amounts.
That being the case, why was there even a discussion about keeping this man on board, regardless of his salary? Certainly keeping him AND RAISING HIS SALARY sends a loud message: CROOKS AND INCOMPETENTS ARE WANTED HERE.
At least there was some debate, but evidently not enough.
The debate pitted a vocal minority of directors who wanted to keep his compensation largely flat, citing the approximately $20 billion in penalties JPMorgan has paid in the last year to federal authorities, against directors who argued that Mr. Dimon should be rewarded for his stewardship of the bank during such a difficult period.
Hello? Difficult period? He caused it! So because of his incompetence and poor judgement, the shareholders and bankers in this institution are rewarding the crook? For sure I'm pulling out of my Chase checking account. Not because my small money will matter when we're talking billions, but I can't justify trusting any company that rewards malfeasance. This truly is a case of the fish does stink from the head, but the supporting body (the board) ain't smelling too good either.
The post What Do You Give The Man Who Cost You Billions? A Raise! appeared first on The Political Carnival.