J.P. Morgan challenges Volcker rule ever being enforced

"Originally, J.P. Morgan was in talks to buy the entire thing, including the U.S. business, for a discussed $4 billion or so. But fears about the potential imposition of a "Volcker rule" limiting banks' size and proprietary trading threw doubt on the efficacy of a deal running counter to both those aims. At first glance, J.P. Morgan's buying the international business anyway might look like a direct challenge to the Volcker rule ever being enforced. If so, why not buy the U.S. operations as well?"

"A full ban on prop trading by bank holding companies would render this moot. But the hope may be that, barring a full ban, this sort of business, away from the politically sensitive domestic gas-and-power sector, would escape tighter regulation. And with Sempra having also hired J.P. Morgan to advise on what to do with the U.S. operation, the bank retains a seat at the table for when the regulatory fog clears."

Nickle here: A few interesting "quotes" from this article in regards to speculating on JP Morgan's thoughts on future regulation.

"potential imposition of a "Volcker rule" limiting banks' size"
"this sort of business ... would escape tighter regulation"
"when the regulatory fog clears"

The whole article seems to be based on the thought that eventually the always fickle American people will grow bored of banker bashing in the same way people are already bored with Chatroulette.

As such it's no surprise that the bankers solution to this negative attention is not to solve the underlying problem but to "wait it out". Maybe they should check how this strategy is working out for Toyota...