One of the most obnoxious sounds in nature is the whine of a Wall Street banker. It’s a cross between the tantrum of a peevish brat and the blathering of a sputtering old plutocrat.
Consider the long, piteous whimper of Jamie Dimon, potentate of the powerful JPMorgan Chase banking empire. He constantly whines about laws to restrict banker greed, even toting around a Rube Goldberg-style cartoon depicting a tangle of rules that, he squeals, is choking poor Wall Streeters like him.
Before you break into tears about Jamie’s plight, though, notice that he and his bank are not choking on rules, but gorging on riches. Dimon himself pocketed – get this -- $770 million in personal pay last year.
Golly, we should all suffer like poor Jamie!
And he’s hardly alone in singing the “Talking Banker Blues,” for that elite clique has long pouted that they’re paupers compared to the billionaires of high tech. So, mounting an odd boardroom “labor action,” bankers have been getting drastic payhikes. The CEO of Citigroup, for example, recently set a new bottom line expectation for top-floor bankers: A 2025 paycheck of more than $100 million!
How can a business lavish such a windfall on one guy? Easy. The CEO slashed tens of thousands of bank employees from Citi’s payroll last year, so he got their pay.
Woody Guthrie once wrote a parody of such predatory behavior, singing “I am a jolly banker, A jolly banker am I.” Today’s Wall Street aristocrats are jolly, too, bloating their extravagant wealth by taking wages and livelihoods from thousands of their own employees. As Woody might sing, that’s how inequality “happens.”
Do something!
Wanna fight the bankers and their rigged systems? Americans for Financial Reform thinks that “the financial system should serve an economy where everyone can thrive, not just enrich a powerful few.” Sounds great to us! Check them out at ourfinancialsecurity.org.
