JPMorgan losses show further financial reform is needed, says AFL-CIO Pres. Richard Trumka

By  Laura Clawson    Sat May 12, 2012

With the Securities and Exchange Commission launching an investigation into JPMorgan's accounting practices, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka said that the nation's biggest bank's $2 billion in trading losses, show "that financial regulation is more needed now than it ever was."  

Trumka continued:

And [Jamie Dimon] been one of the chief opponents trying to lobby against it, dilute all the stuff in the Dodd-Frank bill, to try to dilute it, but I think every American knows that we need Wall Street reform. The lack of Wall Street regulation is what got us to the mess that we came to, when almost totally disrupted our economy.

So I think him losing money shows, one, he isn't infallible, two, that he doesn't really understand the market and no one else does, either, because it's so fickle about stuff, and, three, that without regulations, they will lead us off a cliff, just like they tried to the last time, that we must have Wall Street in check to restore the balance between the financial economy and the real economy

Financial reform has been a key labor movement priority, prominently mentioned in Trumka's statement when the AFL-CIO endorsed Barack Obama for reelection. Trumka has lots of company in pointing out that JPMorgan's massive losses "surely [don't] help" the credibility of CEO Jamie Dimon. But, according to the New York Times, Dimon "refused to concede that the losses necessitated a stronger regulatory framework." While the SEC investigation won't create stronger regulations, it may show the value of some of the regulations Dimon has fought against in the past.

Also in his appearance on Bloomberg TV's Political Capital with Al Hunt, Trumka addressed questions about whether unions will contribute financially to the upcoming Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, saying, "I think labor will do some help. I think it won't be as much as it was in the past."

Tags: Politics, JPMorganChase, Wall Street, Banking, Current Events, Finacnial Regulation, Fraud

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