JPMorgan Chase CEO: 'Why Does The New York Times Hate The Banks?'

Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, asked New York Times columnist Joe Nocera in an elevator a few months ago: "Why does The New York Times hate the banks?"

The chief executive of the largest bank in the country just can't stand how the media covers Wall Street.

That's right. JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon is back in the papers for his thoughts on them. This time, he finds himself quoted by New York Times columnist Joe Nocera asking a straightforward question.

"Why does The New York Times hate the banks?"

This isn't the first time Dimon has put himslef at odds with the media. In late February, he called the percentage of newspaper company revenue paid out to reporters "just damned outrageous," according to Bloomberg News. "Worse than that," he added, "you [the media] don’t even make any money!"

Yet there's evidence that it's the country as a whole, not The New York Times, that hates the banks. According to multiple surveys, the financial industry is one of the most despised in the United States. Banking is viewed the fifth most negatively of any sector, according to Gallup, and HuffPost readers said they hated the banking sector more than any other. Distrust of banks had reached record levels by last summer.

JPMorgan Chase could not be reached for comment.

Americans aren't the biggest fan of Dimon's company either. In fact, JPMorgan Chase has the ninth-worst corporate reputation in the country, according to the market research firm Harris Interactive. Other banks among those companies with the top ten worst reputations include Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, and Citigroup.

Some customers have had enough, with banks losing 40,000 customers on Bank Transfer Day in November, when customers moved their deposits to credit unions.

The Occupy Wall Street movement, which first spread across the country last fall, has focused most of its energy on Wall Street. Occupy Wall Street wrote in its declaration that corporations "have taken our houses through an illegal foreclosure process, despite not having the original mortgage" and "have taken bailouts from taxpayers with impunity, and continue to give Executives exorbitant bonuses."

The risks taken by banks in the lead up to the financial crisis have left the country with 9 million fewer jobs. They also cost taxpayers $34 billion because of the subsequent bailouts, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Meanwhile big banks have continued to charge new fees in an effort to scrape more revenue together before Dodd-Frank's full implementation.

Comments

[addisonsteele]

06:11 PM on 04/04/2012

What a whiner! If he did not want people to say bad things about him and his company, he should not be a bankster.

[BassMonk]

03:32 PM on 04/04/2012

Jamie,

Banks are leeches, that's why.

[mjdloc157]

02:38 PM on 04/04/2012

thats easy none of the banks will give this failing company any money so thier mad.and they want so much to be liked by Obama,possibly thinking they could be next for a bailout with tax dollars

[StopMakingSense2]

01:02 PM on 04/04/2012

The same reasons everyone else does! If you are still asking that question you have been ignoring the answer! But then that would be the conservative approach wouldn't it!

[DiogenesOfAlaska]

11:39 AM on 04/04/2012

Why do you think they don't like you?

But wait: "Worse than that," he added, "you [the media] don’t even make any money!"

If that's how you think about providing information, and if that's how you pay your employees, then I can understand why there's a financial crisis.

Because if you don't pay your risk managers and your accountants, but only your "producers", then that's what you get: a bubble after a bubble after a bubble.

Don't you know that?

You know, it would be pretty sad if you didn't know that by now. In fact, it's bad enough you didn't know it prior to the crisis. Because it's what CAUSED the crisis.

[nanimal]

10:13 AM on 04/04/2012

It's not only the New York Times that hates you Jamie...it's a majority of Americans as well. It has to do with your excessive greed and fraudulant business practices that crashed the world economy. Remember Jamie?

[PhilliePhan]

10:13 AM on 04/04/2012

Maybe he shouldn't be Chairman if he has to ask that question. After all, isn't a CEO supposed to know what is going on in the world?

[american-dolt]

09:34 AM on 04/04/2012

The People Hate you too, Jamie.

[phatdaddy51]

09:31 AM on 04/04/2012

are the people at the top really that unaware?

do the banks really not see what they've done? and are doing? then they're too stupid to exist

[stephan67]

08:48 AM on 04/04/2012

It hates them because they want to be free, to steal easily. That's what they call freedom.

[nikki717]

07:26 AM on 04/04/2012

You should be in jail.

[clearasmud]

07:12 AM on 04/04/2012

Or, maybe it was because you Boosted your Bonuses while being BAILED OUT BY THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.

[layla1]

07:11 AM on 04/04/2012

Got news for you buddy... it's not just the banks and the NYT, most of America hates your bank and you personally. Perhaps it is your ego and your greed, your selfishness ranks right up at the top of the world wide page. I dearly hope you end your days in prison and I am sure that I am not alone.

[clearasmud]

07:08 AM on 04/04/2012

Well Jamie, in addition to the multitudes of reasons below, please refer to MF Global, where you stole money from farmers and grain operators, putting many out of business, just to boost your profits a cpl of 100ths of a %.

[sybase46]

06:26 AM on 04/04/2012

Lets see. JP Morgan along with the other TBTF Banks drive the world economy into the ground while ranting Free-Markets and "Govt. Get the Hell out of the Way" and then beg for a bailout from the Govt. whom they so despise! Then in their gratitude to the taxpayers, borrow Money from the FED at 0% and charge usury % rates to the folks who bailed em' out that would make a mafia loan shark blush with envy. I have no idea why anyone would be upset with the Banks?