No wonder Barack Obama is being nice to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon: The president has up to $1 million parked in Dimon’s bank.
Obama’s money is held in a “JPMorgan Chase Private Client Asset Management” checking account, according to the president’s 2011 financial disclosure forms, released Tuesday. Obama praised Dimon Tuesday during an airing of ABC’s talk show “The View” as “one of the smartest bankers we got,” despite the bank losing $2 billion in a complicated transaction that originated in London.
Dimon is not just Obama’s bank.manager. He’s also a conduit to much-needed political donations from Wall Street’s most successful capitalists. The JPMorgan account is only one slice of Obama’s wealth, which the asset disclosure form describes broadly.
Obama also has between $200,000 and $450,000 stashed in Vanguard-managed retirement investments; up to $100,000 in a “defined benefit” retirement package from the state of Illinois; and up to $50,000 in a checking account at Northern Trust bank. He has at least $200,000 in four “529 funds” — tax-advantaged college savings plans — and at least $1.6 million in U.S. Treasury Bills.
The disclosure showed that he earned between $100,000 and $1 million from sales of his recent book, “Of Thee I Sing: A Letter to My Daughters.”
Obama is, however, paying an unusually high interest rate of 5.625 percent on the 2005 mortgage for his Chicago house. If he followed his own advice to Americans, he could take out a new mortgage with an interest rate slightly more than 3 percent. (RELATED: JPMorgan investment chief out)
The president gives his book royalties to a veterans’ charity. Comparatively, Vice President Joe Biden is a man of the people, according to his 2011 disclosure form. He has 20 funds and savings accounts, each worth between $1,000 and $15,000; a Delaware house worth up to $250,000; and two certificates of deposit, each worth up to $100,000.
Read the president’s 2011 financial disclosure form
