http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/14/news/economy/jp-morgan-congress/index.htm?hpt=hp_t2

“WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) -- Congress will weigh in on the news that JPMorgan Chase lost $2 billion on complex trades intended to hedge against economic risk, and that the losses could mount.

“The Senate Banking Committee on Monday announced future oversight hearings, including one that will look into the trading losses at JPMorgan Chase from a regulatory angle. Lawmakers plan to question regulators, not JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500) officials.

“Sen. Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, was the first to call for a hearing on Friday.

"Clearly the losses posted by JPMorgan are significant, and as policy makers we should understand in detail what has transpired," Corker said in a letter to Banking Committee chairman Tim Johnson, a South Dakota Democrat.”

http://us.cnn.com/2012/05/14/opinion/black-jpmorgan-banks/index.html?hpt=hp_t2

“Why JPMorgan gets away with bad bets

By William K. Black, Special to CNN

updated 5:39 AM EDT, Tue May 15, 2012

“Editor's note: William K. Black is an associate professor of economics and law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. A former senior financial regulator and a white-collar criminologist, he is the author of "The Best Way to Rob a Bank is to Own One."

“(CNN) -- JPMorgan Chase can be considered a systemically dangerous institution, which means that it is "too big to fail" because the government fears that its collapse would cause a global financial crisis.

It is simply irrational to allow such an institution to exist, especially when it can easily incur a $2 billion trading loss… “

Cassi Creek:

I saw Bob Corker being interviewed on CNN this morning. Senator Corker was spreading a layer of BS that would fertilize 40 acres of corporate farmland. His contention is that no one understands the financial maneuvers in question, so the Congress should hold another round of hearings until they do understand them. He further stated that he doubts anything illegal took place and that no regulations should be applied to the banking industry and its billionaire CEOs.

The last round of attempts at banking and financial regulation, designed to stop such misdealing and borderline-illegal machinations, were first gutted and then blocked from implementation by the teavangelists.

Corker knows who pays for his campaign (and a lot of his exalted position in life. Like a good little toady, he was out trying to raise the public’s level of confusion about the pirates of Wall Street. He needs to be voted out of office. He’s had sufficient opportunity to feather his nest with materials plucked from the savings and salaries of the former middle class.

The very able and viciously insightful political cartoonists have been hard at work pointing out the failure of Congress to provide sufficient regulation and oversight to prevent the same group of thieves and pirates who brought about the last recession from causing yet another one that may well be more devastating to the world’s economy than their last masterpiece.