The Hill News

On a recent edition of Meet the Press, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, lamented that his company’s $2 billion trading loss would “absolutely” embolden proponents of tighter regulation of Wall Street. I think that Mr. Dimon is most definitely correct; however, unlike Mr. Dimon, I think that emboldening champions of financial reform is actually a good thing.
 
Of course, I'm not claiming that JP Morgan's $2 billion loss will fundamentally change the health of the firm, which made $19 billon last year. But it clearly has rattled a bank that is considered a financial giant, and made the public question just how much bigger the losses could have been given the lack of adult supervision of our still opaque capital markets.  So it’s true that a turn of event like this â€" particularly when it happens so publicly, at such a critical time, and to such an outspoken critic of financial reform â€" is the type of scandal that galvanizes public opinion.Â!   And it’s that type of pressure that can reignite real momentum for financial reform.

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