An article entitled JPMorgan Chase reports $3.28 billion 4Q profits, that was posted in the Chicago Tribune on Friday, January 15, 2010, talks about how JPMorgan Chase made fourth quarter profits of $3.28 billion dollars. JPMorgan Chase more than quadrupled their profit in the last three months of 2009. They were able to make this much money mostly because of their investment banking section of their company. JPMorgan Chase has been losing money on loans and consumer banking but has been able to survive and thrive in the stock and bond markets.
The amount of money that banks and other companies have been making during a bad economic time is quite ridiculous. Even more ridiculous than the amount of money that these companies are making is the way that they are making it. According to the Chicago Tribune JPMorgan Chase has quadrupled their profits in the last quarter through investment banking. Investment bank is not Chase’s primary business. They are making a vast majority of their profits off of buying and selling stocks and bonds.
Aristotle would look at this situation and be appalled by the amount of money that these corporations are making. Aristotle talked a lot about the art acquisition and of it is important to the art of managing the household. Aristotle saw making money as a way to get the necessities in order to live the good life. JPMorgan Chase and every other corporation do not intend on sharing their excess profits. Aristotle would also point out the JPMorgan Chase is making most if not all of their money through the artificial art of acquisition. The reason for stocks and bonds are to help finance a corporation, but Chase has been using these stocks and bonds to turn a profit. According to Aristotle this would be an improper use of the stocks and bonds, even though the business of stocks and bonds has turned into making money solely off of trading the stocks and bonds. Chase is all about using money to make more money, which leads to a fetish for money.
Overall there are many situations in society today where the artificial art of acquisition is in place. I tend to agree with Aristotle because many of these companies, like JPMorgan Chase, are trying to gain as much money as possible and have no intention of ever sharing any of the wealth, and the only thing that profits in these situations are the companies themselves.
I totally agree with you Josh. I also read this article and thought it was ridiculous how much money this company was making off of interest alone. While this company is making record profits they are giving none of it back to the community. Instead they are putting $26.9 dollars aside that will be distributed in bonuses, mostly to top executives. Aristotle would argue that this is unlawful to keep hoarding money away and not giving anything back to the people in need. These companies are not acquiring what they need to survive and live well they are just hoarding away money to feed their hunger for greed. All in all, I agree with what you said about the improper use of money and how these companies are trying to gain as much money as possible without giving anything back. I think it is wrong and something needs to change in order to get these companies to give some of their excess profit to those who need it most.
ReplyDeleteThe primary purpose of the bank would lie in the various activities they take part in that benefits their clients. This bank investing and other unrelated activity is partly what caused the recession in the first place. Because banks accumulate a lot of money they can invest and make more but many times they invest money that is not theirs or doesn't really exist in the sense that it is money that is loaned out and is probably going to be paid back. When the bank loses money that was supposed to be paid back and that money doesn't get paid back there is a problem. Recently President Obama proposed limiting the banks' ability to profit from customer unrelated activities such as this.
ReplyDeleteThis is a Great post for me to comment on especially because being a recent ex-employee of Chase I know first hand on what the company is doing as far as making profits. First of all, Jamie Dimon is greeeedddyyy for money and making quarterly "campaigns". He is one Very rich man and in order to show on Chase statements that the company is hitting the numbers, he uses his own money and investments and plays with it. Either he invests his own back into the company to show higher corporate numbers and then sells it back out and goes back and forth. Nowadays it was very sad to see customers coming into the branch confused and upset for overdraft fees or any other fees that just eats up people's money out of their accounts. Everyone knows that bank fees are where banks make a big portion of the profits. There were so many people coming in asking to get fees reversed that Chase decided that fees could only be reversed if it was a bank error. Customers are only allowed now to get one "goodwill" fee reversal up to $70, once a year. On the employees, there is a huge pressure to making the numbers, if you don't make the numbers, you can lose your job. I saw quite a few of my fellow co-workers in TEARS, including my old ast manager, because if the tellers were not making the numbers, she could be dismissed. And without taking the current recession into account, the numbers to match grew higher and higher. It's NEVER enough to them.
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