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JPMorgan Chase Spends $500 Million On a Data Center

1sockchuck writes "JPMorgan Chase spends $500 million to build a data center, according to CEO Jamie Dimon. That figure places the firm's facilities among the most expensive in the industry, on a par with investments by Google and Microsoft in their largest data centers. Dimon discussed the firm's IT spending in an interview in which he asserts that huge data centers are among the advantages of ginormous banks. Dimon also offered a vigorous defense of the U.S. banking industry. 'Most bankers are decent, honorable people,' Dimon says. 'We're wrapped up in all this crap right now. We made a mistake. We're sorry. It doesn't detract from all the good things we've done. I am not responsible for the financial crisis.'"

22 of 275 comments (clear)

  1. We're Sorry... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Ya... they're sorry; sorry all the way to the bank!

    Wait...

    1. Re:We're Sorry... by tooyoung · · Score: 5, Informative

      Sorry to hitchhike on a top thread, but in case anyone came here for interesting discussion regarding a $500 million data center, there is not a single comment below dealing with the topic. Just partisan bickering about TARP, etc.

  2. Line Item by Galactic+Dominator · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It doesn't detract from all the good things we've done.

    Can I get a line item listing of these "good things"?

    --
    brandelf -t FreeBSD /brain
    1. Re:Line Item by jhoegl · · Score: 4, Insightful

      1) Then why did so many get sub-prime loans, ending up in people still losing houses today because their payments have continuously gone up? Risk.... none to bank, all on person.
      2) So then with this argument you just refuted your previous one... GG there AC... GG
      3) How did the Fed create an artificial market when the market was based on supply/demand? Demand went up because people were buying houses, people were buying houses due to sub-prime loan offers not understanding the full implications
      4) Yes they did, but they were thinking about the people paying them more, not walking away from the house or bankrupting themselves. The banks actually won out because they are still owed that money by the initial person, they resold the house at auction, and they can get in on the auction loans.
      So yes... they do own these people for the rest of their lives or until they pay it off. Wasnt it once said, discover a way for people to keep paying you and you will be rich?
      Guess what...
      Oh and dont come on here all AC and spout your gibberish.

    2. Re:Line Item by rtb61 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Corporate executives on ludicrous bonus schemes make shit loads of money on loans destined to fail, in fact that was the whole problem. Immediate bonuses being paid all the way up and down the corporate executive line for shit loans, all schemed from the top down by psychopaths, who didn't care how much money their company lost, as they were all in a cosy conspiratorial relationship to protect each other from outside view.

      Thanks to the whole principle of disposable labour, you now have disposable companies. At the highest levels it's all about squeezing out the maximum amount of money out of companies. From dirty off-shore off-balance sheet transactions, that while allowing the companies to cheat on taxes also allow those corporate executives to play all sorts of games with those funds, to cross company conspiratorial schemes to push around funds for no other reasons other than running up executive bonuses.

      Pay close attention. It's not really companies corrupting the politics any more, it's corporate executives using company funds to corrupt politicians and government agencies, getting legislation rewritten not so much to benefit corporations but more targeted at generating more income for corporate executives regardless of the consequences for companies. Psychopaths in suits, they are every where at the top executive level.

      --
      Chaos - everything, everywhere, everywhen
    3. Re:Line Item by timeOday · · Score: 4, Insightful

      1) Nobody makes money making sub-prime loans. It's trivial for any idiot to understand that loaning money to people who can't pay it back is a dumb idea.

      False! Extending a loan (or owning a mortgage-backed security) to anybody is a great idea so long as I get my commission (or sell it at a markup) and no longer own it when it goes kaboom.

      In your imagination, the only party willing to buy those bad loans was the government. In truth, most everybody bought them. Partially this is because the ratings agencies gave these mortgage-backed securities the highest ratings. But the notion this was a wholly government-created situation is just libertarian wishful thinking. Nations in which banks were deregulated the most did worst (see also Ireland), and those where time-tested regulations were preserved did best (see Canada - where average net worth is now higher than in the US).

  3. "I am not responsible" by TimHunter · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining.

  4. Oh, shut up by realmolo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    'We're wrapped up in all this crap right now. We made a mistake. We're sorry. It doesn't detract from all the good things we've done. I am not responsible for the financial crisis."

    Actually, it *is* your fault, and it *does* detract from everything you've done.

    It's like a daycare provider saying "Sorry that we sold your kids' organs. It seemed like a good investment. But it shouldn't detract from the great job we were doing before that!"

    Banks are supposed to MAKE money, not lose it. And they lost money on a MASSIVE scale due to incompetence and especially greed. Everything they do is tainted, forever.

    1. Re:Oh, shut up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Also, it wasn't a mistake... it was premeditated fraud.

    2. Re:Oh, shut up by Trepidity · · Score: 5, Interesting

      And it's not like this particular fellow, Jamie Dimon, just got involved in the sector. He's got a long history doing all sorts of stuff, some of it more on-the-up and some of it more questionable.

  5. "Decent, honorable people" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Yeah, and serial killers are always described as real nice people by their neighbors.

  6. Break up the big banks and... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    reinstitute Glass-Stegall, preventing conglomerates of investment banks with commercial lenders backed by government-insured savings and checking accounts. And the assembling of massive coast-to-coast financial supermarkets like Bank of America and Citibank should never have been approved by Federal regulators under the Clinton and Bush administrations.

    Dimon and JPMC actually proves the rule. After the 2008 banking crash and TARP fiasco, Dimon was anointed as proof that not every big bank CEO was a bad egg. (Although JPMC accepted TARP money, they did so because Henry Paulson asked them to, not because they necessarily needed it). Jamie Dimon, said John McCain and many others, was old school and took his responsibilities to the world economy and banking industry seriously.

    Obviously, not seriously enough in the face of the non-ending quest for superior returns and mind-blowing take home pay.

  7. Riiiiight by Nerdfest · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I am not responsible for the financial crisis.

    No raindrop feels it's responsible for the flood.

  8. Really. by rickb928 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "I am not responsible for the financial crisis."

    No, but the people who work for you were. And you're supposed to be in charge.

    --
    deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
  9. Re:Huh. by cpu6502 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Yeah ProPublica is wrong. It's called an accounting trick. Borrow money from the government in loan #2, and then pay back the government on loan #1 (TARP). General Motors pulled the same schenanigans when it claimed to "pay back" the loans, but in fact is still deep in debt to the government.

    It's reminiscient to how a certain president (I'll let you guess) claimed to "put 100,000 more cops on the street". In reality the law said 100,000 cops or 100,000 cop-equivalents... like new computers. Most departments spent the money on computers and only hired an additional ~500 actual cops.

    When you listen to a politician or CEO or marketer you have to realize they are not lying to you. Instead they are redefining words on the fly (a "cop" is not really a cop... could be a computer), or omitting crucial information (we paid TARP, but we borrowed money to do it).

    --
    My AC stalker: " I personally agree with your posts most of the time, but that won't keep me from modding you troll"
  10. Re:Huh. by timeOday · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Goldman (and JP Morgan?) don't owe the government anything because they were simply gifted enough money to stay afloat, free and clear. This was done by the government paying AIGs debts to Goldman, even though they were unregulated, non-FDIC arrangements. In other words, the banking industry set up a scapegoat (AIG) to receive bailouts for it and then die, which it did. So Goldman and the others get their cake ($$$ with 9 zeros) and eat it too (carping about how they never wanted and didn't need TARP).

  11. Re:Huh. by NemosomeN · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They got a fair interest rate. They borrowed $25B, and paid it back 7 months and 20 days later. The revenue to the government was $1.7 B.

    It was preferred stock with a 5% dividend, with warrants attached. This basically means the banks sold stock to the government with a required, 5% dividend. The government also received warrants, which allow them to purchase additional common stock at a predetermined price (These warrants were dilutive, that is, existing shareholders pay for the government's profit when they are exercised). The banks "repaid" the loans by buying back the preferred stock. The government was then left with the ability to buy shares of the banks at a discount if their stock performed well (If the share price was greater than the exercise price of the warrants, the government would purchase the shares at a discount).

    TARP was certainly not a sweetheart deal. Bernanke and Paulson (Not Geithner) sat in a room and basically said they were going to offer the banks the loans, but it was all or nothing. If anyone refused to take the loans, no banks would be able to borrow. Any bank that had refused would have gone down in history as "The bank that vetoed the bailout." Payback was also forcibly delayed. The idea was that if half of the banks took loans and half didn't, the market would panic, selling the banks that took loans and buying the banks that didn't. This would have caused the bailout to fail immediately, and, in fact, have the opposite of the desired effect.

    I guess to answer your question; yes, I have an opinion.

    --
    I hate grammar Nazi's.
  12. Talking of blood by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That $500 million price tag tells me one thing - someone is making a killing !

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
  13. Re:Oh, shut up, but Remember by afidel · · Score: 5, Informative

    Quite the opposite, the CRA (of 1977!,) requires
    CRA lending needed to be done "consistent with safe and sound operation." In 1999, banking regulators issued guidance concerning sub-prime lending and made the point that CRA lending needed to be responsible -- well underwritten, well priced, and understandable by the borrower.

    Also

    With respect to performance, Canner and Bhutta did three types of analysis. First, looking at mortgages originated between January 2006 and April 2008, they found that sub-prime and Alt-A loans originated in zip codes with incomes just below the level that "counts" for CRA purposes performed slightly better than those originated in zip codes with incomes just above the CRA level. They also looked at the performance of first mortgages originated under the affordable-lending programs of NeighborWorks America, most of which counted for CRA purposes, and found that these loans had delinquency rates lower than sub-prime or Federal Housing Administration loans, and foreclosure rates lower even than prime loans. Finally, they noted that only about 30 percent of foreclosure filings in 2006 took place in CRA-eligible zip codes. link

    That's right, tightly regulated lenders making first mortgages under the CRA had a lower foreclosure rate than largely unregulated lenders making other types of mortgage loans including prime loans. Blaming the CRA for the foreclosure crisis is the reddest of red herrings and allows the true culprits (independent mortgage originators and their enablers in the securitization arms of the big banks and the credit rating agencies) to walk away scott free.

    --
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  14. Uhhhhh by manaway · · Score: 4, Insightful

    "(they didn't get into subprime stuff)"

    According to Reuters, in 2007 JPM was involved in subprime lending: "JPMorgan's first-quarter subprime mortgage originations, through Chase Home Finance, jumped 11 percent to $3.02 billion, according to Inside Mortgage Finance." So your knowledge may be more personal than reliable. And as of 2012, according to other sources, is still involved in Credit Default Swaps so there is reason to continue distrusting banks.

    Do you hear of any US banks that want Glass-Steagall reinstated? No? Banks want regulations that protect them with a facade of trust, not restrict them from unlimited salaries and shareholder profits. But hey, at least they'll be hiring some database and network admins.

  15. Dimon should go to jail! by GPLHost-Thomas · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Dimon is "sorry", yet pretends that he did "good things"? WTF!!! That's a joke, right?

    Perhaps he's sorry that, as one of the biggest crooks in the world, he didn't go to jail? Or maybe he's sorry about the wash trading he did, and that he got only a 30k fine, for manipulating the crude oil markets? Or probably, he is sorry for JP-Morgan naked short selling on the Silver market? Or for emitting more bonds of Silver than they physically have? Or...

    Come on, we all know what these data centers are for. They are for doing high frequency trading. It's been a long time that we all know such trades are destroying more wealth than it creates.

    Such declaration is simply outrageous. We're tired of the financial terrorists. None have been punished, yet destroying jobs and lives by the millions, and proves of that accumulating. This one day will stop, once the general public understands what is going on. They'd better have strong necks when that day comes, because probably, their head will go off, just like in the French revolution.

    In the mean time, since the people have lost their power over this disgusting "elite", everyone should play on the same game, and buy (physical) silver coins. Not only this is a very good investment, especially considering today's record low, but this also has the side effect of crashing JP-Morgan, since (as I wrote above) they did very dangerous bets, and already lost billions. As Max Keiser puts it: "GO GO! Silver liberation army!"

    1. Re:Dimon should go to jail! by Enigma2175 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This one day will stop, once the general public understands what is going on.

      Have you met the "general public"? You seem to have a much higher opinion of them than they deserve. As long as there is bread and circuses the public is NEVER going to understand what is going on. These banks own the politicians and regulators - they are never going to be punished.

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      Enigma