Dimon has had great timing on his side, and therefore looks a lot better than he really is. Smart? yes. Mostly honest? yes. Able to trade his company around the biggest credit collapse in history? No way, not possible.
Did he acquire Bear because he felt he needed to support a trading partner, or because he actually "got a steal" of a price? Probably the former, unfortunately for Dimon-lovers.
JPM is not the city on the hill, looking down at all the sheep. Niether is GS for that matter. The stock will either go away entirely, or at LEAST trade down 80% from the all-time highs ($64?). Either the balance sheet is bad (likely), or the income statement goes away, but you can't win both wars. That makes JPM a single-digit-midget candidate. The big tech names survived the tech bubble, but they had fantastic balance sheets (no leverage whatsoever). The big financial names don't have this cushion.
$38.32 (06/10/08)
