Did he really say "the quality of an employee is not always based on performance"? Wow, wonder what else he is trying to alude to (maybe 'potential' with no demonstrated ability to do anything well yet?). That should make you run from being a shareholder! This belief is another aspect of Wall Street management failures. Think Chase employees knew this was the principle and behaved accordingly?

This guy (and the rest of the whining bankers) need to shut his trap! He should be thankful the American public is not rioting outside his office, like how some people are doing in other countries. For making these comments, JPMorgan Chase should be blacklisted from receiving any bailout money, if they end up in the situation of needing one! If these banks do not want strict oversight from the government when they receive bailout money, then let them go belly-up. If a company receives bailout money, they get strict oversight. If they don't want strict oversight, then they go bankrupt. It's as simple as that!

I agree with the view that banks that received bailout should show restrain. However, the general public do not understand that the pay/bonus scheme is heavily top-heavy. A lot of junior people work long hours and received only a small portion of the bonus pool. However, this outlash by the president and all the politicians that jumped on the popular band wagon are simply ignoring the fact that while someone who earns 5 million dollars a year could easily fore go the 10 million bonus, the people at the bottom who are earning 65k a year would be taking a huge hit when the 50k bonus is removed.

I doubt that Dimon is clueless since he warned at least two years ago of the dangers of too much risk in the financial system and took steps to assure the soundness of the bank he leads. It is easy for pundits to distort the message that, at times, very difficult jobs may not allow the best of individuals to show great results , so there must be some way to entice the best person for a job to accept it. He knows how much effort can go into a difficult task. Why should it not be rewarded? If one wants to think only of today, your comments are cute. If one is able to see a future for the country by rewarding the able and the innovative to continue to tackle hard jobs, you are seen as a little writer looking for cheap shots. I will take Dimon's view every time. Bonuses are a cost effective way to compensate in cyclical industries. Fixed costs can kill a company. Want to keep jobs or be cute?

Tyler is right. Aside from senior management and a few "top traders," the vast majority of professionals rely on "bonuses" as a significant part of annual comp. I know that bonus was expected to make up over 50% of mine. Instead, my bonus got cut by 70% and bonus income is about 25% of my annual compensation, a nearly $40,000 difference. If you want to limit comp to execs, I have no problem. But if you're outraged at the payouts to rank and file, all you're doing is strengthening management's fight against paying their employees for the value they create. The bonus payouts are largely a way to reduce annual salaries of rank and file employees.

A previous poster mentioned...."The people at the bottom who are earning 65k a year would be taking a huge hit when the 50k bonus is removed."

Um... this is part of the problem with the banking industry-the sense of scale with respect to pay is really out of whack if people are feeling sorry for the "folks at the bottom" making 65k! Most of the country makes far less than that.

And please don't tell me it just an issue of training and "hard jobs". There are tons of hard jobs with long hours out there in many, many fields. I'm in academics, in the natural sciences. After going through typically 7-12 years of training (masters, PhD, post-doctoral research) at relatively low pay, 65k is considered an average to good starting salary (depending on the type of school) with a job that very frequently has long hours. Yet I know kids straight out of college who get paid similar salaries in banking jobs. Finance jobs are overpaid and asking for a cap (ONLY for companies that are receiving an extremely large amount of financial assistance from the government) seems eminently reasonable.

By the many comments on this post I see people do not know background info before speaking. Chase is one of the few banks that has been consistently posting profits each quarter throughout this whole financial mess. They did not ask for the 25 billion. Congress passed a law and so it was. Chase is a strong financial institution and will remain so due to the great leadership of Jamie Dimon and the dedicated employees who make sure their customers are taken care of. Many of you people need to do your research before blurting out info, it does not make you look good. Know the facts first, then we can have an educated conversation.

The Yin, the Yang and the Deal (Clueless Dimon)

Remenber this article. What size Hat for Mr. Big Mouth?

By LANDON THOMAS JR.

Published: June 27, 2004

While analysts expect cost-cutting to drive the stock price, they also warn that J.P. Morgan may need to reserve as much as $3 billion to cover litigation over its involvement in the Enron and WorldCom bankruptcies.

The stock price is a constant theme in their speeches, but both men say their primary focus now is pulling the two banks together.

One recent evening, 200 senior bankers from both companies gathered for a dinner at J.P. Morgan's headquarters, capping a day of corporate-integration meetings. As Mr. Harrison and Mr. Dimon picked at their filet mignon platters, they again found reassurance in Mr. Welch, who appeared on multiple screens surrounding the diners. ''Execute. Get it done,'' Mr. Welch called out to his rapt audience, with his raspy, Back Bay twang, in a recorded video clip.

Their dinners finished, Mr. Dimon and Mr. Harrison stepped up to the lectern for a closing interview, conducted by Mr. Lee. ''Tell us some personal things about yourselves, Jamie and Bill,'' Mr. Lee said.

AFTER a brief pause, Mr. Harrison talked about growing up in North Carolina, coming to New York, all the blind dates he went on before marrying at the age of 42 and how his daughters, 11 and 13, greet him when he arrives home in Greenwich, Conn: ''Hey, Billy boy. How were things at the office?''

As the crowd roared with laughter, Mr. Dimon took his turn. He recalled the reaction of the eldest of his three daughters when he told her that he had been fired from Citigroup. ''Can I have your cellphone now? I guess you won't need it,'' she said.

For all their differences -- and despite Mr. Dimon's jocular gesture that same afternoon -- the two looked comfortable on stage, a Wall Street version of a two-man vaudeville act. They finished each other's sentences, knew where to go for the laughs and sounded the same themes about the importance of a unified culture to a successful merger.

Then Mr. Lee asked the million-dollar question: What about the stock price?

Mr. Harrison went first, cautiously. ''There is huge upside,'' he said. ''If we start performing, our stock is 45.''

Without hesitation, Mr. Dimon raised a grander goal. ''If we do our jobs and get the $2.2 billion in cost saves, in five years if the stock is not $100, I will eat my hat,'' he said.

$27.63 as of Feb 6tth, 2009