JP Morgan announces record profits - 48% increase over 2009

[Hannah Bell]

JPMorgan Chase’s profit report for 2010, released Friday, has become the occasion for a celebration by the American plutocracy of the return of the good old days before the Wall Street crash of 2008. Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s CEO, summed up the general mood of the financial elite when he declared the bank’s record profits to be evidence of a “broad-based economic recovery,” adding, “I think the future is extremely bright.”

The very fact that Dimon can speak this way in the midst of the worst social crisis since the Great Depression without any repercussions from the government or the media is an expression of the immensity of the chasm separating the modern-day aristocrats from the people.

JPMorgan’s announcement kicked off a week of earnings reports that is expected to show that 2010 was a record-setting year for America’s banks and corporations.

The banking giant reported a 48 percent increase in profits over 2009 and a 47 percent increase for the fourth quarter of 2010 over the same period the previous year. JPMorgan netted a profit for the year of $17.4 billion, a figure equivalent to the gross domestic product of Bolivia. Its fourth quarter performance lifted the stocks of the other major banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, which are slated to release their 2010 results this week.

Employees in JPMorgan’s investment banking wing are taking home an average of nearly $370,000 for 2010, while top executives “can still expect to collect multi-million-dollar bonus checks.”

The profit windfall in the financial sector is part of a broader surge in US corporate profits, which analysts estimate rose 27.1 percent in the fourth quarter, nearly triple the median profit growth since 1988. This comes on the heels of record-setting year-over-year profit increases (37 percent, 51 percent and 92 percent) reported for the first three quarters of 2010.

For the broad mass of the population, there are records of a different sort.

The official unemployment rate has been higher than 9 percent for 20 straight months, the longest such span since the Great Depression.

Home prices have fallen by 26 percent since June of 2006, breaking the record 25.9 percent decline that took place in the Depression between 1928 and 1933.

Household wealth has fallen precipitously and the official poverty rate is as high as it was in the mid-1960s.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/jan2011/pers-j18.shtml

[bluesbassman]

1. I made exactly half in 2010 what I made in 2007, and work 30% more hours.

Where the hell do people think those profits are coming from? The American worker is being screwed.

BTW, I'm thankful I have a job, but does my boss really have to tell me so every stinking day? :mad:

[Hannah Bell]

2. exactly.

[Scruffy1]

10. Unfortunately I didn't major in parasitology

If I only would have known that parasites are so well rewarded I wouldn't have decided to do useful stuff.

[Swamp Rat]

3. “I think the future is extremely bright...” and very hot.

[bluesbassman]

4. Great pic. We live in hope Swamp Rat. n/t

[Swamp Rat]

5. We can jam while we wait.

;)

[Scruffy1]

8. I like the picture-what is it?

[geckosfeet]

6. Your tax dollars at work....

[Scruffy1]

7. See, everything is just fine.

Fuck capitalism

[WinkyDink]

9. My Name is Morgan (But It Ain't JP):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilJb6cnjkFc

(A better version is by the Chad Mitchell Trio, alas, not available!)

A man named William Morgan took his girl to see a play,
And on the journey homeward, they stopped into a cafe.
As soon as they got seated, Liza grabbed the bill of fare,
She called the waiter and she ordered everything was there.
Bill says, "I know you're hungry, girl, and I don't like to squeal,
But who do you suppose is going to pay for such a meal?
You may have known me pretty long, but you sure have got my initials wrong;
My name is Morgan, but it ain't J. P."

cho: My name is Morgan, but it ain't J. P.
There is no bank on Wall Street that belongs to me.
You may have known me pretty long,
But you sure have got my initials wrong;
My name is Morgan, but it ain't J. P."

Bill Morgan married Liza, thinking he could change her ways,
But what she did to William, first, I'm most ashamed to say.
Whenever she'd go shopping, she'd buy everything she'd see,
And what she couldn't pay for, had it sent home COD.

cho: My name is Morgan, but it ain't J. P.
There is no Texas oil well that belongs to me.
You may have known me pretty long,
But you sure have got my initials wrong;
My name is Morgan, but it ain't J. P."

One day six big delivery wagons back up to Bill's door,
They asked him to accept the goods while they went back for more;
It didn't take Bill very long to grab his hat and coat,
When Liza she returned again, she found this little note:

cho: My name is Morgan, but it ain't J. P.
You must think I own a railroad company.
You may have known me pretty long,
But you sure have got my initials wrong;
My name is Morgan, but it ain't J. P."