Wall Street Complains Despite Record Profits

From The New York Times this morning:

“As every student of American history knows, this country’s core founding principles included nonpunitive taxation, constitutionally guaranteed protections against persecution of the minority and an inexorable right of self-determination,” [one hedge fund manager] wrote. “Washington has taken actions over the past months, like the Goldman suit that seem designed to fracture the populace by pulling capital and power from the hands of some and putting it in the hands of others.” [...]

Mr. Loeb isn’t the first Wall Streeter to turn on the president. Steven A. Cohen, founder of the hedge fund SAC Capital Advisors and a supporter of the Obama campaign, recently held a meeting with Republican candidates in his home in Greenwich, Conn., to strategize about the midterm elections, according to Absolute Return magazine.

Other onetime supporters, like Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, also feel burned by the Obama administration, people close to him say.

From The Huffington Post this afternoon:

Bank profits jumped 21 percent last quarter to nearly $22 billion, the highest level in three years, as banks put away less money to cover future losses, fewer borrowers fell behind on payments and lenders paid the least for their funds in perhaps 50 years, a government report released Tuesday shows.

Lending also dropped by about $96 billion, or 1.3 percent, as borrowers continue to remain skittish about the “slow recovery,” Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation Chairman Sheila Bair told reporters Tuesday in Washington. “Consumers and businesses need to have confidence in the recovery before they will start making decisions on credit,” Bair said, according to a transcript of her remarks.