By Paul Hodgson – CCO and Senior Research Associate
From Events Team Leader Mark Magee: a selection of quotations from “that conference call” with JPMorgan’s CEO Jamie Dimon regarding that $2 billion loss, and counting.
“We’re willing to bear volatility, and um, that’s life.”
“Just because we’re stupid doesn’t mean everybody else was.”
“We’re not in a business where we are not going to make mistakes. We are going to make mistakes… I could never promise you no mistakes.”
“Even hindsight’s not 20/20, but with hindsight, yes, obviously we should have been paying more attention to it.”
Actually I quite like the fact that he is a little less than buttoned up. Then again, that’s probably why he won’t give up even one of his three job titles, so maybe it’s not such a good thing.
Mark also spotted this piece of “no idea how the 99% live” commentary from another hard-done-by CEO
“A lot of people don’t understand that I have no other income other than selling stock or borrowing against it,” said Mr. Stiller, in a phone interview from his home in Palm Beach, Fla.
“I went for a year where I couldn’t sell any shares,” Mr. Stiller said. “Lavish is all relative.”
Hey, thanks, Green Mountain CEO Robert Stiller, for letting us know that. Lavish is all relative. Let them eat cake. Not quite the same ring, but the same sentiment.
Another Piece of Reputational Damage Unlimitation
Director of Ratings Naveen Reddy – a Small Print first, if I’m not mistaken – spotted this
Reuters article.
Princess Cruises has been hit with a lawsuit accusing it of “outrageous conduct” and “callous disregard for human life” for failing to rescue three young men aboard a disabled Panamanian fishing boat, two of whom later died at sea.
Not a good year for Carnival. You’d think with one disaster already it’d be careful to avoid
another.
Oh, I’m Sorry. Would You Like to Try Again?
Mark also submitted this entry.
American International Group Inc. (AIG), the insurer majority owned by the U.S. Treasury
Department after a 2008 bailout, declined to reveal legal costs in response to the only investor who asked a question at its annual meeting. Only one shareholder asked a question at AIG’s annual meeting? One? Was anyone there from the Treasury? And why did it decline to answer? Never mind a shareholder’s right to know, this is a publicly-owned company. Every American citizen has a right to know.
The Tom Sawyer Whitewashing the Fence Clause
Compensation Analyst Ashley Kotzur found this while trawling through the Las Vegas Sands 2012 proxy statement, and kudos to Mark for coming up, against his own stiff
competition, with one of the funniest headlines we’ve ever had on Small Print. Just damn clever.
The Company also permits its named executive officers to use Company personnel for home repairs during business hours on a limited basis. The Company requires that these executives reimburse it in full for these services. There is no incremental cost to the Company for any of these benefits.
Some of this stuff just beggars belief. Home repairs? Company personnel have so little work to do for their actual employer that they can pop round to fix the wiring for their bosses’ cable TVs? Croupier by night, plumber by day. Bouncer cum landscaper? Well, at least it gets them out during the day….