JPMorgan Chase, the nation's largest bank has just avoided the deep freeze again by agreeing to pay a $2 billion fine for ignoring Bernie Madoff's Ponzi scheme (JP was Madoff's primary bank for two decades before the scheme blew up) -- despite emails from executives at the time referring to the "well-known cloud over the head of Madoff" and speculating he's "part of a Ponzi scheme," and a Bank Secrecy Act making it a criminal offense to facilitate money laundering or failing to report suspicious transactions to the authorities.
The deal follows JPMorgan's payment of $13 billion to the government over its sale of fraudulent mortgage securities, not to mention its alleged bribery of Chinese officials and its $6 billion loss in the London Whale scandal -- all told, $20 billion in fines and penalties over the past year. But those fines are still small potatoes to JPMorgan and won't make a dent in its end-of-year bonus pool. All of which should be enough evidence that Wall Street's major banks are too big to jail or fail or curtail, and must be broken up.
