Union boss: Game’s up for regulation opponents after JPMorgan losses

The head of the nation’s largest union confederation said that the staggering $2 billion plus loss JPMorgan Chase has booked on a trade is a major set back from Morgan head Jamie Dimon and others on Wall Street trying to dilute President Obama’s financial reform law.

AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, speaking on Political Capital with Bloomberg’s Al Hunt this weekend, said the JPMorgan mess shows “financial regulation is more needed now than it ever was” and that it has damaged Dimon’s credibility.

{mosads}“So I think him losing money shows, one, he isn’t infallible, two, that he doesn’t really understand the market and no one else does, either, because it’s so fickle about stuff, and, three, that without regulations, they will lead us off a cliff, just like they tried to the last time, that we must have Wall Street in check to restore the balance between the financial economy and the real economy,” Trumka said according to a transcript.

He added “it surely doesn’t help his credibility.”

In the interview, Trumka explains his public support for Obama’s new stance backing gay marriage.

“It could turn off some labor people. It could turn off some business people. It could turn off a group of people. And, you know, I hope that we get past the point where the policies that we adopt in this country, all we care about is what it does to the polls and not what’s good for the country,” he said. “We think that everybody ought to be treated equally, so it’s marriage equality is what we’re looking at, and people shouldn’t be discriminated against.”

Trumka took a swipe at GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney for appearing to take credit for the auto bailout. 

“That’s – that’s almost laughable. Didn’t he oppose that? Didn’t he say that they should have let them go bankrupt? And here’s what he didn’t understand. This shows his lack of understanding for the economy,” he said.

Trumka also acknowledges in the interview that the union-backed effort to recall Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker could fail.

“Well, we’ve only recalled two governors in the history of the United States, so we didn’t think it was going to be an easy battle. However, he spent almost $20 million already, and he hasn’t been able to move his popularity up,” he said.