The House of Dimon: How JPMorgan's Jamie Dimon Rose to the Top of the Financial World

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xv

Introduction xvii

Part One: In the Eye of the Storm

Chapter 1 The Dimon Way 3

Running the House of Dimon 7

The Rise, Fall, and Rise of Jamie Dimon 10

What You See Is What You Get 14

Straight Talk about a Credit Crisis 15

Never, Ever Forget the Downside 18

A Culture of Transparency 20

Doing What It Takes to Get the Job Done 23

Chapter 2 Taking a Bear-Sized Bite 25

No Ordinary Deal 27

Presenting the Deal to Shareholders 29

Step-by-Step Through the Deal That Changed Everything 32

Reining In the Risks 41

On Dimon’s Shoulders 42

Part Two: The Making of a Wall Street Leader

Chapter 3 The Weill Years: In the Trenches 49

The Making of Jamie Dimon 52

The Market in His Blood 53

Going to Work for Weill 56

The Rise of Sandy Weil 58

In the Trenches at Commercial Credit 60

Buying Primerica—A New Second Chance 65

Chapter 4 A Force on Wall Street 71

Primerica Grows 74

A New Team for a New Corporate Entity 77

Growing Tensions 80

The Deal of Deals 85

The Firing of Jamie Dimon 89

Chapter 5 The Recruitment of Jamie Dimon 91

Life after Citigroup 92

Bank One’s Search for a CEO 95

The New Bank One CEO 102

Taking Over as CEO 105

A House Divided 107

The Beginning of a New Culture of Accountability 108

Chapter 6 The Turnaround of Bank One 111

New Players for the Team 113

Welcome to Boot Camp 116

Taking It to the Street 117

Turning Around Bank One 119

Straight Talk from the New CEO 128

The Fortress Balance Sheet Debut 129

Restoring Profitability 130

Chapter 7 Back on Wall Street 133

The House of Morgan 136

The Deal That Almost Didn’t Happen 139

Delving into JPMorgan Chase 142

Dimon Takes Over 146

The Storm of 2007 150

The Wall Street Statesman 151

Part Three: Weathering the Storm

Chapter 8 The Dimon Fortress 155

Strong Defense, Strategic Offense 157

The Signature Phrase 158

It Always Pays to Be Prepared 159

No Resting on the Laurels 162

Advice and a History Lesson 164

Stress Testing Assets 165

Having Real Capital 166

The Long-Term View 170

Chapter 9 Taking Over WaMu: A Sign of the Times 171

Welcome WaMu 173

Washington Mutual Runs into Trouble 175

A Strategic Fit for JPMorgan 176

“First-Class” Banking Meets “Whoo Hoo!” 179

A Somber Picture 180

Failure and Takeover: A Sign of the Times 182

More Acquisitions in the Future? 186

Waiting for What Comes Next 187

Chapter 10 Navigating Financial Storms 189

A Brief Postmortem of a Complicated Crisis 191

Bubbles Are Trouble 192

Even the Best Model Can’t Predict Everything 195

Blame the Underwriting 196

Launch New Products Cautiously 199

Risk at One Firm Affects Others 200

More Regulation Is Coming 201

Bolder, Braver Leaders 203

Chapter 11 A Wall Street Statesman 209

The Hard Work of Being a Leader 211

Family, Humanity, and Then JPMorgan 212

Loyal—to the End 217

Notes 219

About the Author 233

Index 235