6 Ways the Big Banks Are Getting Back-Door Bailouts and Making Big Money From Taxpayers

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http://www.alternet.org/story/156005/6_ways_the_big_banks_are_getting_back-door_bailouts_and_making_big_money_from_taxpayers/

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Bankers love to rail against government interference in the “free market.” Jamie Dimon, grilled this week in front of Congress over JP Morgan Chase's massive recent losses, famously complained last year that some regulations are “anti-American.” And Lloyd Blankfein, CEO of Goldman Sachs, warned ominously that increased regulations might make the bank seek out another location to do its business: “Operations can be moved globally and capital can be accessed globally,” he said.

Even while some of them occasionally have the grace to admit that they wouldn't still be around without the massive taxpayer bailouts of 2008 (and continued access to ultra-cheap loans from the Federal Reserve), they still like to claim that they're free-market entities, subject to the whims of the invisible hand, and that the government's meddling can only be destructive.

Yet those same banks are happy to make their money from the same governments about which they love to whine. Most of us know about the big, official bailouts. But the banks get much more than that from federal and state governments. Those lobbying dollars and campaign donations aren't just to keep regulators away; they lead to lucrative contracts where banks are paid to administer government services, and are put in position to skim fees off the very same taxpayers who pay for those services.

The big banks have their tentacles in every aspect of government—despite right-wing hand-wringing about government bureaucracy, the big banks are often actually the ones coming between you and your money. So who's really getting rich off “welfare”? JP Morgan and Bank of America.

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1. And JP Morgan's recent losses appear to have been unstated somewhat

J.P. Morgan loss may reportedly hit $9 billion.

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Shares of J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. fell on Thursday after a newspaper reported that the trading loss suffered by the bank could potentially amount to $9 billion in a worst-case scenario — much more than previously estimated.

The bank’s trading loss resulted from a soured bet on complex credit derivatives undertaken by its chief investment office in London.

The New York Times, citing unnamed sources it described as having been briefed on the situation, reported Thursday that an internal report produced in April by J.P. Morgan Chase (US:JPM) showed that the bank’s trading loss could hit between $8 and $9 billion under the worst possible conditions.

http://articles.marketwatch.com/2012-06-28/industries/32447343_1_chief-executive-jamie-dimon-fortress-balance-sheet-trading that's just a convenient link : there are many on the subject today.

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[Lint Head]

3. So do the major health care corporations that bid for Medicare contracts.

Titans like Atena, BCBS get lucrative government contracts. They are so intertwined in the industry to the point that they make the call on what kind of legislation is considered. The 100 million they spent to fight the ACA was a partial show. That amount of money is chump change to billion dollar corporations. CIGNA is worth 90 billion.