Slog Comments
The Sunday Morning News
1
Downtown the other day I saw someone with some nice corporate-looking stack of papers asking people to sign a petition to make Mother's Day a 3-day weekend. I just ignored it rather than scoff openly at it.
2
If Occupy Wallstreet doesn't take the opportunity to demand more reforms in the wake of JP Morgan's latest fiasco, it's done.
3
@2, if Elizabeth Warren's effort to spotlight it gets any traction, don't worry, it will draw Occupy. Their thing is to wake once others have done the footwork on a given issue, then swoop in and claim to be the standard bearers for it. They'll hold a cop-baiting event to draw spray or truncheons with an eye to getting media attention, disavow any violence as black bloc and agents provocateurs, all to redirect focus from the issue at hand to their own nobility and heighten the genuine pleasure they feel from their sense of belonging together. Finally they'll declare that getting more of us to at least know the name of a reform is just as good as reform itself.
6
Perhaps if our banking industry was fully nationalized and regulated such "sloppy" trading wouldn't happen?
9
@8: Now, now, he posted the news at 9:01 on a Sunday morning doing a better job than some paid staffers.
10
@8, thanks for that. Fixed. For some reason I trusted spell check instead of my eyes and general knowledge.
12
@4, I appreciate that. On Slog gay rights threads I've had Seattleblues call me deranged, on journalism threads Will in Seattle has mocked me as uninformed...,on this topic to have you in particular deploy the three magic words - I have to say, it feels like another little badge of honor I can keep with those others. Thanks.
13
Beware The Bullcrap: Sgt. Doom’s Totally Irrelevant Commencement Address For Hapless Grads
Much of what you will hear, read and learn as you go through life will turn out to be bullcrap, therefore, always stay open minded, always strive to be mentally flexible.
Beware the bullcrap !
Years ago I read of the destruction of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge as detailed by a civil engineering professor, an Italian immigrant, who left out some very crucial points which dramatically altered the narrative: the original bridge design had been sound, but they brought in a second engineer named Leon, who radically altered the first design, removing important structural components to make things cheaper.
The original engineer complained officially and members of the bridge construction crew took bets on how long the bridge would last; it wasn’t really a surprise when it collapsed!
Beware the bullcrap !
Back in the 1960s, a series of articles, and even a movie, appeared about the dolphin expert, John Lilly.
Later, in reading Lilly’s autobiography it became obvious that the movie and all the articles had been complete and total fiction! (I verified that it was indeed Lilly’s autobiography --- the truth being that he was a paranoid schizophrenic who never completed his education, he certainly never earned a degree from Cal Tech! Yes, turns out you can buy a degree from the California Institute of Technology, Harvard and MIT, and whenever Lilly wanted to dump his wife for a newer, younger model --- it wasn’t his fault --- Lilly claimed to be following the directives from the “Galactic Council of Ten.”)
Beware the bullcrap !
Reminds one of how old Joe Kennedy, who essentially flunked out of prep school, not only managed to scam his way into Harvard, but obtained an academic scholarship in the process.
Joe Kennedy would become the youngest bank president in America . . . . it figures!
Beware the bullcrap !
There was a popular column for some years written by Marilyn vos Savant, claiming to have tested positive for the world’s highest IQ; she even made it into the Guinness World Book of Records.
I saw her in several interview, and she certainly didn’t appear to be any kind of super genius (I have come in contact with at least several) so I wrote and complained to Guinness about her entry in their book.
Some years later Guinness would retract her entry; turned out she only tested at an IQ of 132!
Beware the bullcrap !
Just recently, the Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, warned of the existence of Al Qaeda anywhere. It wasn’t bad enough that there’s Al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula (AWAP), Al Qaeda in Syria (AQS) and Al Qaeda on Wall Street (AQWS), but now there’s Al Qaeda Anywhere (AQA).
And most of all,
Beware of guys named Leon !
[Sgt. Doom is a senior fellow at the Grassy Knoll Institute, the think tank dedicated to studying and exposing think tanks.]
More...
Much of what you will hear, read and learn as you go through life will turn out to be bullcrap, therefore, always stay open minded, always strive to be mentally flexible.
Beware the bullcrap !
Years ago I read of the destruction of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge as detailed by a civil engineering professor, an Italian immigrant, who left out some very crucial points which dramatically altered the narrative: the original bridge design had been sound, but they brought in a second engineer named Leon, who radically altered the first design, removing important structural components to make things cheaper.
The original engineer complained officially and members of the bridge construction crew took bets on how long the bridge would last; it wasn’t really a surprise when it collapsed!
Beware the bullcrap !
Back in the 1960s, a series of articles, and even a movie, appeared about the dolphin expert, John Lilly.
Later, in reading Lilly’s autobiography it became obvious that the movie and all the articles had been complete and total fiction! (I verified that it was indeed Lilly’s autobiography --- the truth being that he was a paranoid schizophrenic who never completed his education, he certainly never earned a degree from Cal Tech! Yes, turns out you can buy a degree from the California Institute of Technology, Harvard and MIT, and whenever Lilly wanted to dump his wife for a newer, younger model --- it wasn’t his fault --- Lilly claimed to be following the directives from the “Galactic Council of Ten.”)
Beware the bullcrap !
Reminds one of how old Joe Kennedy, who essentially flunked out of prep school, not only managed to scam his way into Harvard, but obtained an academic scholarship in the process.
Joe Kennedy would become the youngest bank president in America . . . . it figures!
Beware the bullcrap !
There was a popular column for some years written by Marilyn vos Savant, claiming to have tested positive for the world’s highest IQ; she even made it into the Guinness World Book of Records.
I saw her in several interview, and she certainly didn’t appear to be any kind of super genius (I have come in contact with at least several) so I wrote and complained to Guinness about her entry in their book.
Some years later Guinness would retract her entry; turned out she only tested at an IQ of 132!
Beware the bullcrap !
Just recently, the Secretary of Defense, Leon Panetta, warned of the existence of Al Qaeda anywhere. It wasn’t bad enough that there’s Al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula (AWAP), Al Qaeda in Syria (AQS) and Al Qaeda on Wall Street (AQWS), but now there’s Al Qaeda Anywhere (AQA).
And most of all,
Beware of guys named Leon !
[Sgt. Doom is a senior fellow at the Grassy Knoll Institute, the think tank dedicated to studying and exposing think tanks.]
14
Dimon is playing at being frank and open about this loss but in reality it's a smokescreen to cover the dbacl that ld to the loss of this 2 billion. This wasn't some "rogue trader" this was a mega failure of policy. JP Morgan was using share holder money to invest in the dodgiest of derivatives. This is exactly what the Dodd-Frank legislation is designed to regulate and that is what Dimon has been using every ounce of his influence to circumvent. He is in major damage control mode. 2 billion is a bit much to be referred to as "egg on the face"
16
Here's the half of the Chase story that isn't reported.
Chase said it "lost" $2 billion (some reports peg it as high as $27 billion).
Ok. Fine.
But along the way they paid someone $2 (to $27) billion for whatever it is that sunk in value.
Where did the $2 Billion go?
17
#13
Maybe you should spend your time more productively by making short videos to answer Rex Velvet, Sgt. Doom.
18
@15 We buy their tissue paper and Murdoch's cable. So it is our money they use to corrupt governments.
21
The hideously relevant thing that Dimon said is that although they lost $2 billion through sloppiness and stupdity, we shouldn't worry because they'll be posting a great profit this year anyway.
23
Mr. Dimon, are you admitting that your organization's profit motive is not sufficient to keep you from being sloppy and stupid in ways that endanger not only your bottom line, but also the entire economy? Gee, who would've thought that was the case, especially after the events of the last 5 years?
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