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BUSINESS DAY
FT
Tuesday 12 November 2019
NATIONAL NEWS
Jamie Dimon says ‘greedy’ bankers ‘let the American people down’ JPMorgan chief is only major Wall Street banker whose tenure predates financial crisis LAURA NOONAN
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amie Dimon said bankers “let the American people down” ahead of the 2008 financial crisis, calling out those who were “greedy, selfish, did the wrong stuff, overpaid themselves and couldn’t give a damn”. The chief executive of JPMorgan Chase is the only head of a big Wall Street institution whose tenure predates the 2007-2008 financial crisis, that is estimated to have led to 9m job losses in the US. Ten million homeowners also lost their homes. “I believe there were people . . . who were greedy, selfish, did the wrong stuff, overpaid themselves and couldn’t give a damn. Yes,” Mr Dimon told CBS’s primetime 60 Minutes news show on Sunday night, which averages 11m viewers. Asked if he was one of those people, he replied “No”, first saying he bore no responsibility for the financial crisis and then saying he would take “some”. “It [the mortgage crisis] was a huge error, it was hugely damaging,” he said. “I think we let the American people down.” He said he could understand how people felt as a result. “If you’re the average American you’d be angry about what happened, there was no Old Testament justice . . . A lot of people lost their reputation and money but too many people didn’t.” The 63-year-old also touched
on his brush with throat cancer five years ago, describing finding a lump while shaving. “When someone says to you: you have cancer . . . it’s almost like a punch in the face, the fear,” he said. “The hardest part was telling my family.” “I just didn’t know how to do it. I said I’m going to tell you something, it’s going to be OK.” He asked his wife to call his parents — who died of cancer within hours of each other in 2016. “I couldn’t tell them that their son may die before them.” He has been in remission for five years, and said he never considered stepping down from JPMorgan Chase. “I love my job.” In a section of the interview previewed on Friday, Mr Dimon hit back at US Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren, who said the banker “and his buddies” should “chip in” to help others succeed since their success is partly built on “the opportunities, workforce, and public services that we all paid for”. “Anything that vilifies people, I just don’t like . . . We shouldn’t vilify people who worked hard to accomplish things,” Mr Dimon said. The banker, who frequently pronounces on the US economy and policy, was reported to have been considering entering the presidential race himself. He told 60 Minutes he “thought about thinking about it” and then decided not to.
Fighting back: Siemens boss slams EU and restless investors Kaeser’s reputation on the line as reforms fail to excite markets and shares flatline JOE MILLER
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oe Kaeser has become accustomed to walking on red carpets in world capitals alongside Angela Merkel, turning on the charm with heads of state as the unofficial poster boy of German industry. But the Siemens chief executive, once the darling of the capital markets for his commitment to an aggressive restructuring of the 172-year-old conglomerate, now finds himself in a less appealing role. With his tenure at the top of Germany’s most recognisable industrial brand due to end in 2021, the personable Mr Kaeser is facing an open revolt from key investors and persistent press predictions of a premature departure. Six-and-a-half years after taking over a sprawling business in trouble, the Bavarian, who has spent almost 40 years at Munich-based Siemens, is credited with securing the group’s future through zealous cost-cutting and a series of mergers and spin-offs. A graphic with no description Yet Siemens’ share price lingers in the same region as three years ago, with hopes of a revival likely to be held
back by a slowing global economy that Mr Kaeser warned last week would continue to weigh on the group’s sales. In an interview with the Financial Times, the 62-year-old said he was still in the midst of fortifying Siemens against “massive transformative environments” that threaten the company’s profit pool, such as smarter cloud computing. When it came to defending his legacy Mr Kaeser, who has a named successor, Roland Busch, waiting in the wings, struck a combative tone. The wounds inflicted by Brussels in February when it blocked the merger of his company’s high-speed trains unit with France’s Alstom, were still apparent as he slammed the body, which he sees as having foiled a move to fend off Asian competitors. “There is no point” in having a European Commission, if it “doesn’t come up with a joint approach on foreign economic policy, which enables us to be on the same table as China and the US”, he said. If the commission, soon to be led by compatriot Ursula von der Leyen, fails to push through reforms that prevent such a scenario from recurring, it will amount to “nothing but a costly bureaucracy”, he said. www.businessday.ng
Evo Morales backed new elections on Sunday but was forced to resign hours later after the military urged him to stand down © EPA/Shutterstock
Evo Morales resigns as Bolivia’s president Leader alleges ‘coup’ after head of military urges him to step down over contested poll ANDRES SCHIPANI
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vo Morales has stepped down as Bolivia’s president after almost 14 years in power, following pressure from the chief of the armed forces and a string of resignations over a contested election that led to weeks of protests. “I am resigning,” Mr Morales said in a televised address from his stronghold in the coca-growing Chapare region in central Bolivia, a move that unleashed a wave of unrest. “I want to tell you, brothers and sisters, that the fight does not end here. We will continue this fight for equality, for peace.” Williams Kaliman, the chief commander of the Bolivian armed forces, had urged him to quit “for the good of Bolivia”. Several ministers, including the deputy president, also resigned on Sunday while police arrested two senior officials of the electoral commission amid allegations of fraud in the October 20 vote. With the resignation of Mr Morales’s deputy and the heads of both chambers of Congress — all members of his MAS party — Jeanine Áñez, a deputy head of Senate from the opposition, told local television that she might take over as interim president on Monday with the “only objective of calling for new elections and pacify the country”. Mr Morales’s decision to resign sparked violent unrest in La Paz and El Alto, with scuffles on the streets and buses torched. Late on Sunday, Mr Morales said that an arrest warrant for him had been issued and that his house had been ransacked by “violent groups”. The Mexican government offered asylum to Mr Morales and revealed that 20 members of
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the legislature and the executive were already at the Mexican embassy in La Paz. Leftist leaders from Latin America and Jeremy Corbyn, head of the opposition Labour party in the UK, labelled Mr Morales’s resignation a “coup”. Earlier on Sunday, Mr Morales had agreed to call new elections “to lower the tension and pacify” Bolivia as protesters, joined by members of the police, challenged the results of a poll in which the president secured a controversial fourth term in office. Last month, Latin America’s longest-serving president claimed to have won a razorthin majority over Carlos Mesa, himself a former president. But on Sunday, the Organisation of American States called the result “statistically improbable” and demanded another election. “To Bolivia, to its people, to young people, to women, to the heroism of peaceful resistance. I will never forget this day,” said Mr Mesa following Mr Morales’ resignation. “The end of tyranny.” Pressure began mounting on Mr Morales on Friday when police forces across Bolivia came out in support of opposition protesters. On Saturday, Mr Kaliman said the armed forces would “never enter into a confrontation with the people”. After accusing protesters of fomenting a coup, Mr Morales first called for a “debate to pacify Bolivia” and political talks. But this was swiftly rejected by several opposition politicians, including Mr Mesa, who said: “I have nothing to negotiate with Evo Morales.” He called the vote a “monumental fraud”. Mr Morales claimed victory following an unexplained decision by the electoral commission to freeze updates of the election @Businessdayng
count for nearly a day when it appeared that Bolivia was headed for a second round of voting. When the electoral commission resumed updates, they revealed Mr Morales had stretched his lead and was headed for outright victory. Protests reached their peak this weekend as demonstrators from several parts of Bolivia made their way to La Paz, sometimes clashing with Mr Morales’s supporters. Mr Morales’s position became increasingly untenable after auditors from the OAS released a preliminary report early on Sunday highlighting “irregularities that vary from very serious to indicative” in the election and vote-counting process. The OAS recommended new elections. As Bolivia’s first indigenous president, Mr Morales won three sweeping presidential victories and changed the Bolivian constitution. But he lost legitimacy after ignoring defeat in a 2016 referendum on whether he should be allowed to seek a fourth term. While some Bolivians likened him to Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, his supporters still saw him as the man who mended a fractured and volatile country scarred by racism and poverty. To them, he was heir to Túpac Katari, the Aymara leader who led a valiant but failed revolt against the Spanish in the 18th century. Under Mr Morales, poverty rates have almost halved while Bolivia’s gross domestic product has quadrupled on the back of gas and mineral exports. “There has been a coup,” Mr Morales said as he announced his resignation. “My sin is to be indigenous, trade unionist and coca grower . . . We are going to carry the sentence of Túpac Katari — we will return and we will be millions.”