Sunday, January 26, 2020
Bernie lies...
In a bid to stir up trouble at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders took a misguided swipe at JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon on Twitter.
Dimon, a responsible, moderate Democrat, has been on a mission to educate the far left that socialism is not quite what its supporters would have you believe.
The banker wrote a thoughtful piece for Time magazine’s Davos 2020 issue in which he stated, “I believe [socialism] would be a disaster for our country. True freedom is inexorably linked with the free enterprise that capitalism guarantees, and we mustn’t forget that.”
Later, during a CNBC interview at Davos, Dimon went on to reiterate socialism’s shortcomings.
Socialist Sanders snidely tweeted in response, “That’s funny. Jamie Dimon seemed fine with corporate socialism when his bank got a $416 billion bailout from American taxpayers.”
But Bernie had his facts wrong. The amount was $25 billion, and JPMorgan was forced by the government (as were all the other banks) to take Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) capital — even though JPMorgan’s balance sheet was so strong that Dimon didn’t want it.
Further, to assist the Federal Reserve and the FDIC, JPMorgan agreed to acquire Bear Stearns and Washington Mutual in order to protect customer assets, in a deal financed by the government. All funds were paid back at a profit to the US.
I agree with Dimon. Socialism breeds corruption and politicization of commerce and capital, and in virtually every case morphs into a weak and depleted economy, with non-rewarding jobs, few career paths and very rich leaders.
Today there is no ceiling on success in the US. Let’s keep it that way.
And keep our facts straight.
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