Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Dimon’s Complaint: Bank Tax Isn’t Spread Fairly

The New York Times reports:
Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase’s chief executive, says he believes it isn’t fair that the big banks will be the only ones forced to pick up the TARP tab under the proposed bank tax, suggesting that other companies that benefited from the government assistance program should pay up as well.

“It might surprise you we generally agree with the concept that the industry should pay for its own clean up,” Mr. Dimon said on a conference call with analysts on Friday to discuss the bank’s strong fourth-quarter results. “But TARP got extended to a lot of things other than banks, like insurance companies and car companies, so I don’t understand why we should be made to — we’ve already paid for that.”

JPMorgan and the other large banks that accepted government money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program have since paid back the government in full, save for Citigroup. But under the bank tax plan laid out by President Obama on Thursday, banks and other financial companies with more than $50 billion in assets would be subject to the levy — even if they had paid back the TARP money.
Jamie the loyal Democrat doesn't sound too happy. But, heh at least Senator Obama voted to bail out JP Morgan through TARP.