Financial analysts upset over JP Morgan settlement for fraud

Jon Stewart shows the blatant hypocrisy of many TV talking head financial analysts over the recent settlement between JP Morgan and the Justice Dept. It was a given that JPM committed criminal fraud in selling the risky mortgages they knew would default and in fact bet that they would so they could reap  untold profits. This is exactly what caused the financial collapse of '08, this sort of deliberate fraud. And the so-called analysts paint the narrative that the big bad government is going after the do-good JPM while completely side-stepping the reality of criminal fraud, as if that is standard financial procedure and the cost of doing business in an effective economy.


Stewart lays out their dismay in the first video, claiming its not JPM's fault they took on the liabilities of other banks acquired after the crises. Actually yes it is, since they knowingly accepted those liabilities as part of the acquisition. All of which is in reality standard business procedure. And in fact Jamie Dimon of JPM acknowledged so in a clip on the show and explicitly set aside funds to cover such liabilities. Which funds were $15 billion more than the Justice settlement, a bargain. And it's tax deductible! For punishment on committing a crime!

In the second video Stewart shows clips of the financial world's echoing that the government required JPM to buy the failing banks to save the economy, forcing them to take on their liabilities. But going back to the same analysts during the time that deal was consummated there was no outrage at all, quite the opposite. They thought it was a coup of a deal for JPM, a steal, a Godsend, a brilliant move. And again, now that JPM has to pay out on criminal behavior this is seen in an entirely different light? Stewart summarizes: "Fuck all of them."