JPM and GS et al

Ungrateful bastiges. That is my first response to the GS P/L and JPM bitching. But who is really to blame? If you save the wounded wolf from a broken leg and certain starvation do you really expect the wolf to not eat your sheep when healthy??? Of course not, so why do we expect the largest financial instituions that did not fail purely for size reasons to not continue to increase in size once off life support. Too big to fail begets, even bigger and less likely to fail. Smaller competitors are wiped out and the cycle is refreshed. It is the first law of financial thermodynamics.

We here at The Directive really don't care how big GS or JPM or Wells or BoA or Citi are in isolation. What we care about, to paraphrase Col Jessup is this " banks live in a world that has tax payers and these banks need to be bailed out repeatly by the tax payers. Who's gonna do it? You? You, Mr. Dimon, you Mr. Blankfien? We have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Lehman and curse the taxpayers; you have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what we know: that Lehman's death, while tragic, probably saved future pain and that the taxpayers existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, keeps your ass afloat. You don't want the truth because deep down in places you don't talk about at the Hamptons you want the tax payers on that wall, you need the tax payers on that wall. We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use then as the backbone of a life trying to keep the nation' financial shit together. You use them as a punchline. We have neither the time nor the inclination to explain ourselves to firms who rise and sleep under the blanket of steep yield curves and govt guaranteed deposits we provide and then questions the conditions under which we provide it. We would rather you just said "thank you," and went on your way. Otherwise, we suggest that you dump the FDIC guarantee on all those deposits and the ATM card from the Fed and stand on your own. Either way, we don't give a damn what you think you are entitled to.