It seems like all we ever hear about is what a nice guy Jamie Dimon is, and how he's a "giant among midgets" and his souvlaki is out of this world, but the direction he's taking Bearpont Morgan Chase** is deeply disturbing and very much brings his judgment into question.
Not two weeks ago JPMorgan's head of Latin American Credit, along with four MD's and one ED were laid off for reasons related to "cost cutting and expenses." Today we're told that a JPM director paid a visit to 383 Madison this morning to fire all but two analysts from Bear's Latam Research division, telling the peasants, "As you probably realize, we cannot take you on and as you may or may not be aware, JPMorgan decided to keep the headcount the same as before the merger. So now, you are free to look for other jobs." Obviously we knew that there would be (severance-saddled) victims in this whole thing but the fact that Jamie Dimon can't spare a few pesos to keep the group which inspired "Project Awesome" (the fictional Latam division of the fictional JS Spencer bank which spent most of its time chilling in Cabo with the odd Brazilian mention in Dana Vachon's Mergers and Acquisitions) fully intact is a hard pill to swallow and quite nearly criminal. To Dimon's credit, however, he apparently was instrumental in coming up with the line, "You are free to look for other jobs," which was inspired. (Especially after he asked everyone to stay put for the last several months and requested that other banks hold off on hiring Bear employees until he could decide who would be getting fired.)
*It's funnier than "vivan."
**Not yet official, just in the hopper. Also under consideration: JPMorgan Cayne, the reasoning being that "this whole thing would never have happened without JC's inspired management of Bear."
Posted by guest, May 22, 2008 1:07PM
I heard there have been massive layoffs at every level across the investment bank at JPMorgan today.