JP Morgan CEO Dimon Translator: "I Have No Idea What is Going On"

Well I went with a propane gas grill. The ease of use was the decider. I have successfully made dinner for two nights now using the new grill and I am very happy to have it. Much too long I was relegated to electric cooking hell. Flames are the only way to go when cooking meat. A little short on time tonight, so just a quick post.

JP Morgan CEO Dimon Translator: "I Have No Idea What is Going On"
When JP Morgan won the Bear Stearns FED bailout prize, the media was awash with glowing reports of CEO Jamie Dimon's amazing smarts and business acumen. I wondered at the time how smart and savvy you need to be to say "Yes" to a Federal reserve forced acquisition. Today Mr. Dimon was out in force giving confusing, contradictory, but amazingly hard number reads on the US economy.

Mr. Dimon estimated that the credit crunch is, get this, 75% of the way done. Why not 70%? 78%? Who knows. I guess he is saying the crunch is three quarters of the way done. Ok, I would say that is not an entirely crazy estimate, but then Mr. Dimon went on to say that the US recession is "just starting"!? Now I am confused.

I may be crazy, but when a recession happens credit gets HARDER to come by, and debt defaults get BIGGER. So if the credit issues are 75% over, but the US is just starting a recessionary period then something is amiss. Perhaps Mr. Dimon means that with the lending tree bank that is the FED the wall street banks have no credit issues! I would agree to that one. Mr. Dimon was also unclear as to how severe a recession may occur. Maybe it will rival the early 80's downturn instead of the baby early 2000 bust. After review of the entire set of stories and comments, I would offer that Mr. Dimon is guessing as much as anyone else is right now. That should inspire confidence.

Take a glance at the news stories today regarding Mr. Dimon's comments. At first the stories all were cheery over the 75% over comment, but after further review of Mr. Dimon's comments and their contradictory nature, the news reports stopped using the 75% figure and toned down the happy language a bit. You have to wonder about the media's objectivity when they trumpet positive news, and then bury poor news. Are you surprised?

Have a good night.