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| Jamie Dimon |
“It’s getting close to as good as it gets,” said JPMorganChase CEO Jamie Dimon as his bank along with Goldman Sachs, Bank of America and Citigroup chalked up a whopping combined $42.7B in Q2 earnings.
But he warned of several risks ahead that might upset the financial windfall enjoyed by Wall Street.
They are lurking “below the surface like tectonic plates, including geopolitical tensions and wars, sticky inflation, large global fiscal deficits and elevated asset prices,” said Dimon.
While he believes those risks are manageable, they “could also cause meaningful disruptions when they shift or collide.” In another words, watch out.
Prior to that potential collision, the banks cashed in on the Gold Rush connected with building out the AI infrastructure and the robust IPO environment led by SpaceX.
Elon Musk’s rocket company generated more than $500M in fees for the Big Guys including Goldman, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Citi and BofA.
It’s the retail investors that participated in SpaceX’s IPO that are left holding the bag.
The stock is trading today at its all-time low of $132.50. That’s off the initial $135 price offering price and a far cry from its $225.64 high.
As the legendary showman PT Barnum said: “There’s a sucker born every minute.” But those suckers still may have their day.
PR play of week goes to Iran’s foreign minister for scoring points in the aftermath of Donald Trump serving up his latest TACO.
That’s his embarrassing flip-flop on charging a 20 percent toll for transit through the Strait of Hormuz.
The president went from stating that the US would be the “guardian of the Strait” to claiming that “kings and emirs, and all of the people that we all know and we all love” have vowed to invest billions in the US, in lieu of tolls. We’ll see about that.
The Iranian foreign minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi complimented Trump on his guardian idea via a post on X: “POTUS is absolutely right. Whoever provides secure and safe passage of commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz should be compensated for this service. Iran has always been the GUARDIAN of the Strait and will remain so FOREVER. 20% is of course too much. We will be fair.”
Touche. He even mimicked Trump’s penchant for using capital letters.
Overplaying your hand… NYC’s commissioner of international affairs planned to meet Iran’s UN rep on July 7 until the State Dept. got tipped off about the session.
Ana Maria Archila allegedly did not inform mayor Zohran Mamdani about the planned tete-a-tete with Amir-Saeid.
A State Dept. official told the Manhattan Institute’s City Journal that it clarified acceptable behavior for the Mamdani administration and the meeting was canceled.
Archila, who was reprimanded, clearly overstepped. The purpose of the international affairs office is to exchange best practices with other cities and support relations with the entire diplomatic community living in the Big Apple.
It isn’t chartered to handle US diplomacy, especially when it comes to a country that we are currently bombing.
Revisiting tyrants… Historian Timothy Snyder, author of the best-selling book, “On Tyranny,” is putting his ten-lecture course “Hitler and Stalin Today” online as a public resource.
The first installment of the University of Toronto class posted July 15 and others will follow each Wednesday. Snyder’s goal is to help people understand the relationship between history and contemporary democracy.
He describes the ideologies of Hitler and Stalin and the reason why they appealed to Germans and Russians.
He also warns that “it” could happen here.
It’s evident to all that our 80-year-old president is a man stuck in the past but did he really have to invoke the spirit of disgraced FBI director J. Edgar Hoover?... NYC probes prediction markets. Kalshi Polymarket, Coinbase and Gemini Titan... Does anybody want Karoline Leavitt's job? It's no fun playing second fiddle to Trump, who serves as his own press spokesperson.
Kudos to the American Academy of Pediatrics for pulling no punches in blasting Trump's new childhood vaccine recommendations as "dangerous."... Billionaire Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is tired of hearing about people struggling with the economy... Trump delivers priceless gift to Iran's propaganda machine.
Understatement of the Year: FIFA president Gianni Infantino concedes mistakes were made in his scheme to sell-out the World Cup... Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch charges Israel with deliberately targeting and attacking journalists in Lebanon... It will take images of US soldiers throwing rocks at the People's Liberation Army as it invades Taiwan before Trump admits the munitions shortage.
Donald Trump, who earned more than $2B last year, accuses oil companies of making too much money... Rocket science isn't easy, according to SpaceX chief Elon Musk... The volatile Jeanine Pirro has the edge over smarmy Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in the battle over blame for The Reflecting Pool mess... Omnicom CEO John Wren credits clients for adjusting pretty well to the disruptions caused by the Middle East, Ukraine and tariff chaos. 
FIFA chief Gianni Infantino’s audacious scheme to sell stakes in a new subsidiary that will manage the World Cup is the payoff for his obnoxious pandering to Donald Trump... PwC's "thought leadership" pieces on AI and electric vehicles are riddled with "hallucinations."... 
