DEAR EDITOR:
This letter is regarding a story headlined, "JPMorgan Chase CEO Dimon paid $23 million" published April 5.
CEO Dimon received $1.4 million and a bonus of $4.5 million. The balance was made up of stock and stock options. The article giving all the details if Mr. Dimon's compensation ends with the following statement. "In his annual letter to shareholders, Dimon expressed his frustration over the "hostility" faced by the banking industry."
Let me refresh Mr. Dimon's mind on why there is hostility by Americans with the banking industry. In 1933 and 1934, the Congress passed what was called the Steagall-Glass Acts that regulated the banking industry, to wit, banks were not permitted to pay interest on checking accounts, banks were not to be stock brokers, banks were not to be investments bankers, and banks were not to be insurance brokers. Many years later in November 1999, Congress repealed the Steagall-Glass Acts. No more regulations for the banking industry. Did the banking industry react with integrity? Hardly.
In short order the Enron bankruptcy unfolded, along with the WorldCom debacle. In took a while for the unmitigated greed of the banking industry to take advantage of no regulations. Mortgages were packaged and sold as investment vehicles. Banks were now controlling stock broker firms, also selling insurance, or converting IRA CDs into annuities. All this freedom, and receiving large bailouts, used for everything except keeping smaller banks from bankruptcy, and Mr. Dimon is frustrated with the animosity toward the banking industry as he increased his wealth by $23 million and he probably paid less taxes than Warren Buffet's secretary.
Leonard J. Sainato
Warren