While there are absolutely worse CEOs than Dimon in bank-land, how do you successfully manage a massive derivative portfolio in times with such volatility? Very small errors result in very big losses. Can JPM really afford to pay back the TARP? Questionable. Would be much more convinced if the "transparent" government and big banks would let us all "in" on why it's so hard to pay back the TARP. Other banks have done it. So what's holding them back? There might be a time to be more bullish on non-TARP banks, but right now if the bank has TARP it's in questionable territory. As a gov't help acceptor, JPM can suffer personnel and business losses. This is the downside of being in bed with the gov't. While JPM has done a job better than most at acquiring banks when the banks were bankrupt, the company needs to really open up it's balance sheet and expose all that derivative exposure in order to make it a safe bet. Would you buy a car company if they didn't tell you why their inventory was so high, explaining in detail what each portion of inventory is for? So if you can't explain your inventory, you can't convince me to buy the stock based on that inventory exposure.
$27.7899 (04/06/09)
