What Do Jamie Dimon’s Cufflinks Tell Us About the Financial-Industrial Complex?

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JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon testified before Congress today about his bank’s gigantic trading losses a few weeks ago, and the gist of his testimony was — well, something or other. Basically, nobody laid a glove on him, and Republican senators in particular practically genuflected in his presence. No sir, nobody’s thinking about regulating you any more than you already are! Wouldn’t dream of it!

Or something like that. But the real news that has the chattering classes chattering was Dimon’s fashion accessorizing. It seems that he was wearing presidential cufflinks, and nobody thinks this was just an offhand decision as he dashed out of his mansion this morning. But the question is, what message was he trying to send? There are several possibilities:

  • Don’t fuck with me. The president has my back.
  • Give it up, GOP. I still support Obama no matter how much you suck up to me.
  • Hey Obama. See these? Don’t take them for granted.

But maybe he meant something else entirely. We need to engage in some Dimonology here. Help me out.

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We’re falling behind our online fundraising goals and we can’t sustain coming up short on donations month after month. Perhaps you’ve heard? It is impossibly hard in the news business right now, with layoffs intensifying and fancy new startups and funding going kaput.

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If you can part with even just a few bucks, please help us pick up the pace of donations. We simply can’t afford to keep falling behind on our fundraising targets month after month.

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