Will the London Whale lead to more bank regulation?
Senate investigators held a hearing today on JPMorgan’s estimated $6.3 billion loss on risky trading connected to Bruno Iksil, a trader known as the “London Whale.” But new evidence from internal emails and phone calls suggests that even bigger fish may be involved.
“The details of this report were incredibly damning and they really portrayed a bank that showed an impressive amount of hubris and incompetence — senior managers that were misleading to the public, misleading to the regulators,” said FT Alphaville’s Cardiff Garcia. “This is going to be a really powerful selling point for advocates of that particular policy [to break up the big banks].”
And yet, many analysts believe this incident still may not cause any major changes.
“Jamie Dimon and the bank have acknowledged over and over again that this was an enormous mistake,” Fortune’s Leigh Gallagher said. “On the other hand, this $6 billion loss — they have billions more. This was not damaging materially to the company. It was damaging to its reputation...It did not take the company down in any way, shape or form — and it wouldn’t, because it’s so big.”
Listen above for more analysis of this week’s business news. Meanwhile, check out the #longreads suggestions for the weekend.
Cardiff Garcia suggests:
- A scholar goes on the road to play a classic economics game — similar to the prisoner’s dilemma — with indigenous villagers, and winds up making a remarkable contribution to the study of how culture affects cognition.
- Wanna know what it’s really like to climb the ladder at an investment bank? The Epicurean Dealmaker explains what happens at each rung.
- The science of sleeplessness is a bit more strange than most people realize.
Leigh Gallagher has these reads:
- A look into the team behind Magic Johnson’s winning bid for the Los Angeles Dodgers — the Guggenheim Partners.
- Fortune’s Patricia Sellers explores the similiarities and differences between two of the most powerful women in business today: Yahoo’s Marissa Mayer and Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg.
- And the New Yorker hitches a ride on a megacommute with Rebecca Davis O’Brien.
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