JPM (Chase Bank) net income increases 67%

I was going to start a thread today about investor complacency because no one has even mentioned reporting earnings. Just scanning the headline, it is interesting that they managed to increase NI that much while 1) increasing reserves [so rivers et. al take that horse somewhere else] and simultaneously seeing a 2) decrease in revenue.

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I believe Jamie announced last month that they were increasing the dividend after passing the gubment's "stress" test.

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You're right he did. I completely forgot about that. Raised it 500%. He said this morning in his conference call that he doesn't expect another increase "for a couple of quarters."

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Sen. Richard Durbin, an Illinois Democrat

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and to reestablish a significant share-repurchase program

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A share repurchase program when shares were low priced would be meaningful to an investor, at high prices it is virtually meaningless to me and could be a poor use of cash.

Historical precedent suggests that corporate America is notoriously bad at timing share repurchases. May or may not be the case here.

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I guess the issue is whether Dimon thinks the share price is low now. If he thinks it is high, he would not initiate a share repurchase program.

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With all due respect, I mean that as I respect your take on many investment oriented themes, share repurchases these days/past 10 years are nothing but a means of facilitating stock options for executives at the expense of share holders. This has been tested ad nauseam, numerous non-compensated studies support this basis. If a company really wanted to support and enhance common shareholders they would buy when prices were low to benefit the investors willing to hold stock through challenging financial times. Not buy shares when things were better and pay a high price then reissue the shares via options. I personally am sick of this shite. If for no other reason this gives me a valid rational belief to become a trader, although I don't prefer to have to watch a monitor all day long. YMMV.

PS I don't think I ever answered a point you made to me quite awhile ago about owning individual stocks vs ETFs, funds, etc regarding voting rights and letters written to boards of public co's, etc. I tried that route, it went nowhere, and after trying to effect legitimate change I finally said "F'it" and moved on to indexing and ETFs and attempting to find the best risk/reward trade off to make money vs being tied to and staying on top of say 40 stocks at all time. It fits me better and has worked well, others may have other opinions/results.

Goldman profit falls after preferred dividend LINK ][LINK]
Northern Trust net off 3.9% on low interest rate LINK ][LINK]
State Street profit off 5.3%; core results beat LINK ][LINK]

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$20 for a box of checks and additional $18

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WTF and WOW. They keep soliciting me to open a checking acct and will then "give" me $150. Yeah, I bet that is how it would turn out.

A credit union will take much better care of you and can't beat the loan rates.

Yesterday I went down to the county vehicle registration office to register a car. The county NO LONGER ACCEPTS VISA CARDS but continues to take other credit cards, checks and cash. How bout them apples?

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Loan rates? Mama says credit is the devil.

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Hey, now, I never went that far. Bad borrowing habits, not saving, and spending more than you make is definitely a cocktail from hell.

Borrowing at very low rates when you can easily afford to repay the debt and/or it can reduce your tax rates is another story.