William B. Harrison Jr. op-ed in NYTimes
The first question that came to mind when I read this was who wrote it. Harrison rarely wrote anything himself. He could come up with some thoughtful edits but at times he let speeches go, CEO letters, and articles with most of the ideas and almost all of the writing under his name. Perhaps that's not really important as the op-ed content certainly reflects his views.
A question remains however. Why would one want to choose this banker whose incredibly dilutive acqusitions of the distinctly over the hill Flemings, the little scam Beacon, and one who gave 55% of his well performing company to the perversely underperforming, overspending, and elitist JMorgan, to be the spokesman for an industry in need of some support. After the JPM acquisition he lost credibility in much of the investment community forever, and that is a fact.
When he agreed for Chase to buy JPMorgan, Chase was trading $55.00. He predicted that the renamed institution would rise to $100 in just a few years. For completely obvious corporate finance reasons, Chase was trading at $45 within three days of the merger annoucement, and has never traded above $47 since the acquisition, even during the heady days of 2005 and 2006.
In the Google photos he looks fit and happy which deserves a "good for him". Too bad he put personal intuition above corporate finance . How he was chosen for a rebuttal of the ever unscrupulous Sandy Weill is unknown. This underscores the loss of Jamie Dimon as the industry leader, at least for the moment, and the tendency of Goldman Sachs to now be in hiding.
Don't get me completely wrong. Harrison grew immensely as a personal leader at JPMorganChase, but he never sincerely grasped the biggest of investor needs. He was from an entitled North Carolina family and had an ease with many people if you weren't working directly for him, rarely a treat. He enjoyed tennis, golf, and any competitive sport. He was generally upbeat, and with the worst possible heat on the line at a pre-scheduled event right at the crux of the LTCM crisis's near global market credit freeze up in early October 1998 I went with him, he as a Vice Chairman at the time, and he did a very credible job in an incredibly difficult situation.
He could play under pressure, but with an open court he could throw the ball away.
With all of that said, some personal I guess, I agree with almost everything that was written for Mr. Harrison. Just read Warren Buffett's recent comments about how small U.S. large banking is in relation to GDP in most other industrialilzed countries. Outright speculation with customer money as was done with MFGlobal(how is Corzine not in jail) is of course over the chalk lines, but hedging trades to provide liquid markets is essential and should have nothing to do with the so-called Volcher rule, and some large global banks are essential to serve large global institutions - that's not intuition, it's common sense.
A question remains however. Why would one want to choose this banker whose incredibly dilutive acqusitions of the distinctly over the hill Flemings, the little scam Beacon, and one who gave 55% of his well performing company to the perversely underperforming, overspending, and elitist JMorgan, to be the spokesman for an industry in need of some support. After the JPM acquisition he lost credibility in much of the investment community forever, and that is a fact.
When he agreed for Chase to buy JPMorgan, Chase was trading $55.00. He predicted that the renamed institution would rise to $100 in just a few years. For completely obvious corporate finance reasons, Chase was trading at $45 within three days of the merger annoucement, and has never traded above $47 since the acquisition, even during the heady days of 2005 and 2006.
In the Google photos he looks fit and happy which deserves a "good for him". Too bad he put personal intuition above corporate finance . How he was chosen for a rebuttal of the ever unscrupulous Sandy Weill is unknown. This underscores the loss of Jamie Dimon as the industry leader, at least for the moment, and the tendency of Goldman Sachs to now be in hiding.
Don't get me completely wrong. Harrison grew immensely as a personal leader at JPMorganChase, but he never sincerely grasped the biggest of investor needs. He was from an entitled North Carolina family and had an ease with many people if you weren't working directly for him, rarely a treat. He enjoyed tennis, golf, and any competitive sport. He was generally upbeat, and with the worst possible heat on the line at a pre-scheduled event right at the crux of the LTCM crisis's near global market credit freeze up in early October 1998 I went with him, he as a Vice Chairman at the time, and he did a very credible job in an incredibly difficult situation.
He could play under pressure, but with an open court he could throw the ball away.
With all of that said, some personal I guess, I agree with almost everything that was written for Mr. Harrison. Just read Warren Buffett's recent comments about how small U.S. large banking is in relation to GDP in most other industrialilzed countries. Outright speculation with customer money as was done with MFGlobal(how is Corzine not in jail) is of course over the chalk lines, but hedging trades to provide liquid markets is essential and should have nothing to do with the so-called Volcher rule, and some large global banks are essential to serve large global institutions - that's not intuition, it's common sense.
posted by John Borden at 11:33 PM
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