And if you’re going to be a leader, you know what I ask myself? Would I want to work for you in this job? Would I let my children work for you? Would I give you this job if I wasn’t there to provide oversight? If you went to run another company, would I, as an investor, invest in that company?
Our plate is full. We have a lot to do building our company organically and that is our key focus.
We’re going to do the right thing for the company and our customers, all things considered.
JP Morgan always has higher capital liquidity, that is partially to make up for mistakes and problems and obviously its a tough economy. We support an oversight committee, we supported some of the compensation, new compensation rules, though we already follow most of them. We support a lot of it.
If I ran the whole place like it was my way or the highway, we would not be as good a company. I’m going to have mistakes – they’ll be made on my watch and will embarrass me. But I’ll also make sure the company learns from them so it can become a better company.
I am not embarrassed to be a banker. I am not embarrassed to be in business.
We got a lot of excellent people and businesses from Bear and WaMu. But Bear definitely was more painful. WaMu got us into Florida, California, and other states, which was a huge benefit – to expand and grow and add middle-market, private banking, investment banking, and other products, too.
Look, every institution will make mistakes. I acknowledge we make mistakes, and they can hurt my reputation and our company’s. But you also must be willing to let go a little bit, trust others, and not always be so stringent, provided you have robust controls.
If business doesn’t thrive, it hurts America. We need improved relations, more collaboration, more thought and more consistency as we go about trying to make sure we have the best country in the world. Not scapegoating and finger-pointing.
You can design a mortgage system that is different without a Fannie and Freddie, but there are principles you have to have, to have a good system.
You cannot prove this in real time, but when economists 20 years from now write a book on the recovery, it may well be entitled, It could have been much better.
A democracy is a compromise by its nature. It’s not a dictatorship.
The transaction reflects our disciplined strategy of investing capital in core businesses where we can leverage scale and expertise for competitive advantage. In addition to being a great strategic fit, the deal is compelling financially.
As countries get wealthier – all of them, together – you’re going to have financial assets. That is a good thing. You could argue the assets were traded too much, or that they’re too highly valued, or too leveraged.
All businesses tend to pass costs onto customers.
The United States has the best, deepest, widest, and most transparent capital markets in the world which give you, the investor, the ability to buy and sell large amounts at very cheap prices. That is a good thing.
Capping the size of American banks won’t eliminate the needs of big businesses; it will force them to turn to foreign banks that won’t face the same restrictions.
I don’t think you’re going to have one bank. Big companies aren’t going to give us all their business. So they can pick and choose – by product, by country, whatever. We have major competition across every product in every place we operate.
I hope the story of 2011 is that America gets its mojo back. You’ve got to remember that America has the best universities; it’s got some of the best businesses. It’s got an unbelievable work ethic, rule of law. The story of 2011 will be America blossoming again.
My operating assumption is we will always have very tough competition. And even with some European banks struggling right now, some of them can reemerge – and maybe even stronger.