He is on a desperate quest for significance and respect, triggered by his demotion from Golden Boy at JP Morgan.
Charlie was in Jamie’s inner circle for years, and worked hard for Jamie helping to engineer several deals to vastly expand Chase’s footprint. Unfortunately Charlie was responsible for the takeover of Washington Mutual which led to spilling a lot of red ink at JP Morgan during the financial crisis and caused one headache and legal issue after the next.
Charlie was “re-assigned” in 2011 and thus was no longer the presumed successor to Jamie. Charlie left JP Morgan one year later.
Charlie has desperately been working to prove himself “The Better Man” ever since. Charlie “The Better Man” is capable of making all the hard decisions Jamie can make; Charlie “The Better Man “ can also be brilliantly ruthless; Charlie “The Better Man” can orchestrate a management shake-up too; and the ultimate head- to-head match-off — Charlie “The Better Man” has been asked to run a top 5 bank.
- Remember that he insisted on a compensation package that would put him ahead of Jamie’s pay, making him the highest-paid banking CEO in 2020?
Charlie’s relentless need for Jamie’s fame and glory supersedes any of the ethical social standards most of us follow. He can rationalize activities which harm others. He can dehumanize and disengage from his employees, customers and shareholders. He can deny responsibility, deny injury, deny his victims, and deflect blame. He thinks he is WORTH 300 times more than his average employee.
I can see his desperation ramping up as he realizes his time is running out: Failed in his attempt to manipulate the stock price higher through the $30 Billion Stock Buyback - he is now wasting money on tacky lit signs on the top of skyscrapers, hiring a politically connected schmoozer, recklessly buying up expensive office space while at the same time aggressively Offshoring and eliminating US jobs (wtf?), selling off private equity investments, etc.
This is a dangerous time for Charlie and an equally dangerous time for the bank.