JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon has been protesting loud and long about the Obama administration’s plans to increase financial sector regulation to try to prevent future banking crises. Dimon apparently believes that anything that may hurt financial firms’ profits is just asking too much and should be ruled out. The public does not agree.
The public by an overwhelming 77-15 margin said in an early March ABC poll that banks have not yet done enough to make amends for their role in the financial crisis.
The same poll asked the public whether banks and other financial institutions owe it to the country to help Americans struggling with the economy. Once again, an overwhelming majority (69-26) said it is banks’ responsibility to help out.
Dimon’s pleas to let banks off the hook are therefore likely to fall on deaf ears. Perhaps it’s time for financial firms to acknowledge their responsibility for today’s economic problems and finally do the right thing: support long-overdue regulation of their activities.
Ruy Teixeira is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress. To learn more about his public opinion analysis go to the Media and Progressive Values page and the Progressive Studies program page of our website.