The buck stops…..where, exactly?

So, maybe you heard, JPMorgan's senior banker in charge of the London unit that lost $2 billion will "step aside," as will two of the traders involved in the debacle.

Ina Drew, chief investment officer with three decades of experience at JPMorgan, is taking the fall for the ghastly trade that went wrong in the past several weeks. She earned $14 million last year, and was the bank's fourth-highest-paid officer. The New York Times reported "it was unclear what type of severance package Ms. Drew will receive."

To his credit, Jamie Dimon, the CEO of JPMorgan, has said in the past few days that the whole mess was "a terrible, egregious mistake" and it was "sloppy" and "stupid." Funny how an opportunity to actually agree with something Jamie Dimon says will come up every so often….

At this point I don't really want to throw dirt on Ina's head, she's gone, that's the right move for the bank….two of the culpable traders are gone, that's the right move. Maybe they're the only ones who were actually responsible for the murky derivatives position that went sour and cost JPMorgan at least $2,000,000,000, and apparently could have gone even deeper into the red if it hadn't been terminated.

I would have been happier if Dimon had stood in front of the microphone a little longer last Thursday when he announced the colossal loss….I would have been happier if he had said at that time that "the executive in charge of this stupid, sloppy loss has been terminated, along with the traders who put this stupid, sloppy deal on"…..I would have been happier still if Dimon had also said "…and I have informed the board that I will give up $2 billion of my bonus this year to cover the loss."

The buck should stop at the big guy's desk. I think that would have made a lot of JPMorgan shareholders happy.