Jamie Dimon

James "Jamie" Dimon who was born on March 13, 1956 is the current CEO and chairman of JP Morgan Chase & Co. He has been known as the world's 100 most influential people, and was on the cover of the Time Magazine in 2006,2008,2009, and 2011. He was born in the New York City and he attended Browning School. Later he majored in psychology and economics at Tufts University and earned an M.B.A degree from Harvard Business School. After graduating, he worked at American Express as an assistant. In March 2000, Dimon became CEO of Bank One, which was the nation's fifth largest banks. Later he became President and Chief Operation Officer of JP Morgan Chase in mid-2004 when it purchase Bank One. In March 2008, he became board member of the New York Federal Reserve Bank and CEO of JP Morgan and made decisions in connection with the $55 billion loan to JP Morgan to bail out Bear Stearns. 
Today JP Morgan has been one the successful survivors of the most horrific time in our economy's history anyone has ever seen. According to the USA Today, JPMorgan is the only large financial institution that posted a profit during the financial crisis. This month, it posted its 20th-consecutive quarterly profit: $2.7 billion, a 36% increase from a year earlier, with record revenue of $27.7 billion. Its stock price is up more than 150% from its bear market low in March.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMasTlWXwj4
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JP Morgan

Chase has always been in one of the most reliable banks in America. In recent years, economy has been improving, and we can see some new jobs getting available to people. But before the fall in 2008, the stock market for chase was high 40.66 and low 38.88, but as the fall started to come, it went down to 37.65(high) and 36.15(low). The difference in the economy affected everyone, because their market was on stock market, and the stock market crashed. The bank initially did receive TARP funds of $25 million, but they repaid all of their funds because they now look at TARP as investment, and insisted that the taxpayers could actually make money on the bailout.

while the revenue dropped  from previous year, a decline in customer losses highlighted improving financial circumstances for both business and consumers as the economy started to improve. Their net income was risen to $5.56 billion during the first quarter of the year, and they also reported that it was $3.33 billion in 2010. But still they were able to cut funds by 83%. JP Morgan Chase's first quarter revenue did fall by 8% to $25.8 million, and the bank's retail division lost $208 million. 

Apart from all the downsizing and receiving funds from TARP, Chase had shown me that they are getting back on track by returning the money, so that other people can invest in them, and maybe help other countries that are still struggling with the economy.

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Are we good Consumers?

Minimum wage is the lowest employers are legally allowed to pay the workers, and it turns out that it it the wage at which they may sell their labor. Supporters of minimum wage say that it increases the standard living of workers,and reduces poverty, but people who oppose it, say that it increases unemployment among workers with very low productivity due to inexperience, and lesser skilled workers can benefit from them better skilled workers. U.S. workers are not benefiting from the other sweatshops because us as consumers are not buying their goods because, first of all, we are getting the same goods at lower prices, and second, we get more choices  from outside trading. It is necessary for us to keep buying goods from overseas because we do not have to pay so much. Even if we try to purchase U.S. goods, we won't have as much choice, and as consumers we are hungry for different choices. It would help if we purchase our own goods, but then no would want to trade goods with us, and we will be less on resources.

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Truth about Sweatshops

Extreme exploitation, poor working conditions, and arbitrary discipline are only some examples of the life in sweatshops. Most people describe it as"subcontracting system in which the middlemen earned profits from the margin between the amount they received for a contract and the amount they paid to the workers. The margin was said to be "sweated" from the workers because they received minimal wages for excessive hours worked under unsanitary conditions" (Fashion Crimes). Sweatshops exists because it has become part of a global economy, which is ruled by a free trade system.  In this system, a powerful country such as the U.S., negotiates trade agreements with poorer developing countries. Free trade agreements promise more market access to all countries involved by lowering or eliminating trade barriers such as taxes or tariffs. In this way, goods and services are sold or traded between the countries. Unfortunately, these trade agreements include very weak social clauses - provisions that set labor, social, and environmental standards - which do not adequately address worker protections or environmental concerns.
Nothing will happen if we decide to change our consumer habits, but it is up to the big corporations to change their lives. If they provide more advanced technology and better conditions to the workers, they would most likely benefit from their work even more because the workers would work even faster. Workers in Sweatshops are always trying to provide us with different types of clothings to choose from, and they work day and night for us. The least we can do is to appreciate what we have. 


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Made in ________

I always wondered where my clothes came from. I only shop at two or three stores, which are my favorite. When I looked at all the tags of my clothes, I found out that most of my clothes came from China, and I was not surprised. Some of my clothes were from either Bangladesh, Vietnam or India. Which made me wonder, how many labor factories does China has? I knew it would be hard for me to find those kind of information because they do not put their whole information online. But I was able to find out that people in china make 5.55 yen an hour. In U.S. dollar it is 65cents an hour and $54.6 a week, which is extremely low compared to what people make here. I think, even they should have laws to protect their salary and at least get minimum wage, and feed their families properly. People who work there are probably either immigrants, or very poor families who do not have any other choice than to to work wherever they can find a job. The companies put their labels on the clothes about where it is made, and they are getting all the credit for it, but what about the people who made it? They are not getting any credit, and if the companies started to pay them a little better maybe their lives would change and they will be able to do something for themselves and their families.

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Introduction

Hello Everyone,
        This is my third quarter at Foothill College. I'm trying to finish all my prerequisites classes as soon as possible, and then start with my major classes. I'm trying to do Nursing first and then Physician Assistant. Hopefully I'll get it done in time. English and Math has always been my weakest subjects. I was not planning to take English this quarter, but I'm almost done. This is the last English class I have to take, and from this class I plan to learn develop a main idea, and thesis because I always have some problems coming up with those two things. I'm currently working at Fry's Electronics in Fremont, and I started 6 months ago. Since I live in Fremont, I was going to go a community college close to my house, but I just wanted a new environment, that's why I decided to come here, and I love it. I hope to transfer to Davis after next year in fall. I am happy with the education rout I have finally decided on, and I'm excited to learn a lot in this class as well as having a great discussions with all of you. And also, with the help of this blog, I will learn how to write regularly and just focus in one topic that I will be writing about.

-R