Remember that endless line of Wall Street's elite giving their mea culpas over the financial crisis? Neither do we. But JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon today got on national television to apologize in no uncertain terms for his company's "egregious mistake" in losing $2 billion in six weeks. "There's almost no excuse for it," he told Meet the Press. Adding insult to injury, Dimon in April dismissed concerns over trading, calling them a "tempest in a teapot."
Today, he backed way off that statement, saying, "I was dead wrong when I said that. I obviously didn't know, 'cause I never would have said that. And one of the reasons we came public was because we wanted to say, 'You know what? We told you something that was completely wrong a mere four weeks ago.'" But as for any illegal activity, Dimon said it was too early to tell: "We know we were stupid. We know there was bad judgment. And of course regulators should look at something like this." JPMorgan, however, is completely solid, he adds. (More Jamie Dimon stories.)