Protests
of JPM Chase on Wall St, of Predatory Loans and Mining,
Laissez Faire
By
Matthew Russell Lee
WALL
STREET, May 18 -- Of the Big Four American bank, JPMorgan Chase has
perhaps benefited more than any other from the financial meltdown.
While having securitized many and made some of the most predatory
mortgage loans, it was given Bear Stearns, and then Washington Mutual
on the cheap. It proceeded to close scores of WaMu branches.
Tuesday
in lower
Manhattan outside JPMorgan Chase annual shareholders meeting,
environmentalists sang songs about the bank's support of mountain top
removal mining. As Inner City Press has reported,
JPMorgan Chase pays former UK prime minister Tony Blair as an
environmental consultant.
The bank's
security officers handed out leaflets
about less than living wages from Chase's subcontractors Allied
Barton and Summit Security. A protest of predatory lending by Chase
was right around the corner. "What do we want? No redlining! When do we
want it? Now!"
Bronx-based
Fair
Finance Watch got an early copy of JPM Chase's 2009 mortgage lending
on disk. Its analysis, the first in the country, found that in 2009
JPMorgan Chase was even more disparate to Latinos, confined them to
higher-cost mortgage loans as defined by the Federal Reserve 1.98
times more frequently than whites, almost as pronounced as its
disparity between African-Americans and whites, 2.17.
Still
Chase and
its CEO Jaime Dimon lobby against regulatory reform, and call it
unfair that they are tarred with the stigma of the bailout they
accepted. Dimon's speech last weekend at Syracuse University was
protested, although some spun it as a success, with cheers for his
commencement speech about free thinking. Laissez faire is more like
it. Private profits, socialized risk.
JPMC's Dimon, at right: one down, one to go
JPMorgan
Chase helped cause the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holding Inc. by
demanding more collateral and changing guarantee agreements, the
bankruptcy examiner said last week. “The demands for collateral by
Lehman’s lenders had direct impact on Lehman’s liquidity pool,”
said Anton Valukas, the U.S. Trustee-appointed examiner, in a
2,200-page report filed in federal court, also in lower Manhattan.
Footnote:
Simultaneous with the protest and shareholders' meeting, Chase's
previous Community Reinvestment Act officer organized a
CRA breakfast talk. At least two activists were asked to skip the
protest in order to speak, but declined. Willis is known to oppose
any legislation to expand CRA to cover, for example, investment
banking including the securitization of subprime mortgages.
Rather,
he is promoting a more limited regulatory fix to CRA, on such matters
as expanding the areas in which banks are assessed. Whether
legislators like House Banking Committee chair Barney Frank, who
argued CRA should not be under the Consumer Financial Protection
Agency, will now move forward with the CRA modernization bill is not
yet known. Watch this site.
* * *
As Blair Lobbies for
Wataniya, Do Kuwait and JPM Chase's Arranger Role Spell UN Conflict of
Interest?
By
Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS, November 13 -- When Tony Blair does business, who does he
work for? He represents the Quartet, and thus the UN, on development
in the Occupied Palestinian Territories. He has
been paid by JPMorgan
Chase as a consultant, and presumably works for them. When he acts
in
the West Bank for the Wataniya cell phone company, who is he
working
for?
The
UN has
repeatedly claimed that there would and could be no conflict of
interest between Blair's paid position for JPMorgan Chase and his
work in the Palestinian Occupied Territories. When Inner City Press
asked Blair, after a meeting of the Quarter in the Conference Room 4
in UN Headquarters, about any safeguards in place for his UN and
JPMorgan Chase roles, he scoffed. A Blair staffer confirmed that he
continued in JPM Chase's employ.
This
week, Tony
Blair attended a press conference announcing the finalization of
Wataniya's deal, which Blair "negotiated." At the UN noon
briefing on November 11, Inner City Press asked about this last:
Inner
City Press: yesterday, Tony
Blair was in Ramallah, and he’s
described as having negotiated on behalf of a cell phone company with
the Israeli Government. There’s a whole press conference also that
noted his role for the Quartet and for the UN. So I’m wondering,
did he do this on behalf of the Quartet and the UN and what is the
UN’s knowledge, do they have any knowledge on this business
negotiating activity?
Deputy
Spokesperson Marie Okabe: I have no knowledge of that.
Even
forty six
hours later, no answer has been provided. But even cursory research
reveals that Blair's employer JPMorgan Chase served as a "mandated
lead arranger" for the acquisition of Wataniya. Click here
for
the document.
So
again, what
safeguards are in place? Who is Tony Blair working for?
Tony
Blair
Associates has as a client Kuwait, and by implication its royal
family, while Blair has met with the finance minister of Kuwait while
representing JPMorgan Chase. Wataniya Palestine is substantially
(57%) owned by investors from Qatar and... Kuwait. For the former,
it's Qatar Telecom. But for the later, it's the Kuwait
Investment
Authority, which operates on behalf of the State of Kuwait
-- Tony Blair Associates' client. So when Blair lobbies for
Wataniya, who is he
representing?
Tony Blair and UN's Ban, JPM Chase safeguards not
shown
While
awaiting the
UN's answers, we note that in June 2009, "Wataniya Palestine CEO
Alan Richardson recently called on Middle East envoy and former
British prime minister Tony Blair to intervene on behalf of Wataniya
to get the frequency released. Richardson previously has been
involved in controversial cell phone projects in Iraq, with Orascom
and Iraqna, contracts
which the U.S. Pentagon urged the Coalition Provisional Authority to
cancel.
So
to the degree
Tony Blair is working for Richardson, this too is problematic. But
beyond the UN and Quarter, is Blair working for Kuwait? With JPMorgan
Chase's documented mandate lead arranger role for the acquisition of
Wataniya, there is a conflict which, it would seem, will require
action. Blair is dismissive, and the UN appears cowed. Watch this
site.
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