Back in February, Jamie Dimon, the chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, told Fox Business that “Paul Volcker by his own admission has said he doesn’t understand capital markets. He has proven that to me.” After its recent $2 billion loss in trading, it seems even JPMorgan may not understand capital markets all that well. In fact, if JPMorgan would have elected to follow the Volcker rule – avoiding the hedges (or speculative bets) that resulted in their loss – their shareholders would be much happier today. But even if the Volcker rule were to be fully implemented, proprietary trading in banks outside the United States would remain mostly unregulated. Read more…
