Welcome back to Friday! This is your weekly rundown of news and views from the world of business, economics, and finance in this 250th year of our shining Republic. No special-occasion trash bins were harmed in the creation of this newsletter.
This week, a J.P. Morgan executive got canned for stealing a garbage can painted in the colors of the New York Knicks, inflation trashed hopes of a rate cut from Warsh’s Fed this year, New York City’s rentocrat royalty got an even cushier deal from its socialist mayor, and we honored the capitalist who helped Americans win our independence.
Let’s go!
Trash Can DEI Banker Loses HEr Job
A Knicks fan celebrated the New York City team’s NBA championship by emptying a garbage can painted in the team’s blue and orange colors onto the street and then marching off with the can. A video of her committing this combination of littering, vandalism, and theft shortly after the conclusion of the Knicks victory parade went viral, presumably because people were astonished at the brazenness of her anti-social actions.
As it turns out, she is an executive at J.P. Morgan Chase. Or, rather, she was. “Angie Báez, 40, was promoted to executive director of community and industry engagement for card and connected commerce at JPMorgan Chase more than a year ago,” Lydia Moynihan reported for the New York Post. The bank itself referred to this, at least behind the scenes, as a DEI role.
When the video surfaced, J.P. Morgan investigated and fired her. As it turns out, engaging in theft in public is outside the realm of acceptable conduct even for a credit card executive. You can kind of see their point. A bank asks its customers to entrust it with their money. Employing a notorious thief is not a good way to win trust. If she’ll trash the streets and steal a garbage can in plain view on a crowded street and on camera, just imagine what she might do when she thinks no one is watching.
As one New York banker told us: “She’s clearly not cut out for finance. Everyone on Wall Street knows never to commit crimes in front of witnesses.”
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