JPMorgan Chase is buying "plush" new luxury jets for its high-flying financiers and building a fancy new hangar to house them, without using taxpayers' bailout money, The New York Daily News reported Monday.
The report quoted ABC News as saying that the firm's plans to "splash out" 120 million dollars for two new Gulfstream 650 planes and US$18 million to renovate a hangar at Westchester Airport, a public airport located in the towns of Harrison, North Castle and Rye in Westchester County, New York.
JPMorgan Chase spokesmen was cited as saying that no taxpayers' money would be used to buy the planes and the purchases won't go through until bailout cash is repaid.
JPMorgan Chase got US$25 billion of the federal TARP (Troubled Assets Relief Program) money last year but as one of the last relatively healthy big banks, it claimed that it didn't really need it.
CEO Jamie Dimond has reportedly pushed back against criticism of fat bonuses and high living, calling it part of doing business on Wall Street.
Bad publicity didn't hurt the bank's shares: they were up a whopping 25 percent in Monday's big rally, says the report.
Netizens seem to be fine with the big spending. Gradsolo, one of the people who posted comments after reading the news, said "I have no problem with this." He noted that JP Morgan Chase should be allowed to buy the planes as "they are spending their own money, not ours."
Some even say that doing so is good for "stimulating the economy," says the report.
(Xinhua News Agency March 24, 2009)
