Tony Jin
Period A
Current Event Posting #4

Article: Wall Street is Betting as Big as Ever
By Maureen Farrell
Published May 13, 2012
http://money.cnn.com/2012/05/11/markets/wall-street-risk/index.htm?hpt=hp_t3

JP Morgan, a powerful presence on Wall Street recently lost $2 billion in an extremely risky investment. While that amount seems monumental to the average American, it pales in comparison to the bank's total of $2.3 trillion in assets. Chief Executive Dimon reflects on the deal, "In hindsight, we took far too much risk. The strategy we had was barely vetted. It was barely monitored. It should never have happened." This uncontrolled betting is exactly what caused the downfall of AIG: insurance contracts protecting and profiting from defaults. Though the world though Wall Street learned its lesson from the 2008 market crash, it looks to be otherwise. If this continues, the US economy is in constant danger of another crash as these powerful companies toss unimaginable amounts of money around like paper airplanes.


This is extremely important to us as citizens of the United States. As mentioned above, if this extravagance is not curbed, there is likely to be another crash soon. These crashes would create a shortage of jobs that we would be fighting for in a couple of years. The ups and downs in the economy also slow the US's advancement, and creates opportunities for rising powers such as China and Brazil to overtake America. To fight this, there is already a strong Occupy Wall Street Movement. This movement should be supported, as it has the potential to positively influence the powerful businesses that control so much of the economy. The government should also take a stronger role in trying to curb some of these wild bets. Though it would be difficult to monitor, there should be limits in how much risk can be taken with such exorbitant amounts of money.