Weekend Economists Waiting for FDR July 13-15, 2012

[Demeter]

2. ONE BANK THAT DIDN'T GO DOWN...JPMORGAN

JPMorgan loses $5.8 billion on trades (SO FAR); traders may have hidden losses

http://news.yahoo.com/jpmorgan-profit-falls-4-4-billion-trading-loss-110443613--sector.html

JPMorgan Chase & Co lost $5.8 billion in 2012 from disastrous credit bets, and traders might have tried to conceal the extent of the losses earlier this year, the biggest U.S. bank said on Friday.

The bank still managed to earn nearly $5 billion in overall profit in the second quarter and said it had fixed the problems in the Chief Investment Office, which was responsible for the trading losses. In the worst-case scenario, JPMorgan will lose another $1.7 billion on the trades, it said.

But JPMorgan's disclosure that traders may have deliberately lied about their positions could bring even more intense regulatory scrutiny to the bank, analysts said. It is already under investigation by everyone from the FBI to the UK's Financial Services Authority....

&quot Dimon) has a lot of explaining to do about how this could happen," said Kim Forrest, senior equity research analyst at Fort Pitt Capital Group in Pittsburgh.

...JPMorgan said it expected to file new, restated first-quarter results in the coming weeks, reflecting a $459 million reduction of income because of "bad valuations" on some of its trading positions. The bank found material problems with its financial controls during the period...

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-jpmorgan-earnings-20120713,0,4588784.story

...The bank also announced its Chief Investment Office would no longer make the same types of bets that caused the losses.

"CIO will no longer trade a synthetic credit portfolio and will focus on its core mandate of conservatively investing excess deposits to earn a fair return," Jamie Dimon, the bank's chairman and chief executive, said in a statement.

JPMorgan said it made $5 billion, or $1.21 a share, in the second quarter, down from $5.4 billion, or $1.27, in the same period a year ago.

JPMorgan also restated its first-quarter earnings by $459 million. In a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the bank said it "recently discovered information that raises questions about the integrity of the trader marks and suggests that certain individuals may have been seeking to avoid showing the full amount of the losses in the portfolio during the first quarter."...