When "capitalists" like Dimon push back against capital requirements they seek a form of corporate welfare that will, eventually, lead to a crisis too big for government to contain, in a continental superpower with over 200 million very private firearms:
"When JPMorgan Chase & Co. Chief Executive Officer Jamie Dimon testifies in the U.S. House today, he will present himself as a champion of free-market capitalism in opposition to an overweening government.
"His position would be more convincing if his bank weren’t such a beneficiary of corporate welfare.
To be precise, JPMorgan receives a government subsidy worth about $14 billion a year, according to research published by the International Monetary Fund and our own (Bloomberg) analysis of bank balance sheets.
"The money helps the bank pay big salaries and bonuses.
"More important, it distorts markets, fueling crises such as the recent subprime-lending disaster and the sovereign-debt debacle that is now threatening to destroy the euro and sink the global economy."