Anatomy of a Bank that is Too Big to Fail

The greatest fine in the history of Wall Street Regulation has been assessed against J.P Morgan Chase Bank (JPMC).  Prior to that  JPMC paid 16 billion dollars ($BB)in the prior three years against regulatory fees and requirements amounting to 1/3 of its net income.



Question: Is JPMC just too  big, and too complicated to run?

The "London Whale" trade in which a "rogue" trader lost a billion dollars and then tripled down on the loss and proceeded to lose more money and ultimately the  CEO not aware of 6BB of losses at his own company is a  unique case in point.

JPMC earnings and revenue come from multiple sources that indicate not just incompetence but illegality.

-bribery in china involving hiring of prominent chinese officials
-Jefferson county Ala. USA,  JPMC bribed the local county commissioner into taking swap deals that created unmanageable debt for the country which led to a 750 $MM fine.

Banks such as JPMC would have been bust without the government bail outs in 2008
The Business model: get money at zero interest and then loan it to others at interest

could it simply mean that JPMC is simply too big to fail as it is backed  by the bottomless pit of cash of the federal reserve.

What will happen?  Look at these numbers, larger than the economies of many countries on the planet: is this sustainable?

Balance Sheet

Note total assets of 2.3 $TT!
Shareholder equity is about $200 BB.
NYSE data as cited by the Globe and Mail

Income (Note Sales of $108 Billion)

 By the time you get to the shareholders, their net value is about $13 Billion,

 the rest is "retained earnings and Other"

What will 2013 bring?