Banks ‘Blindsided’ by New Fee

If they had seen it coming, perhaps they could have shorted it. In an interview with Good Morning America, Andrew Ross Sorkin said banks were “completely blindsided” by the news that President Obama plans to impose a special fee on them to help recoup the $120 billion that the Treasury will probably lose on the bailout. “They don’t know what to do,” Sorkin said, adding that the banks are upset because they say most of those losses came from auto makers and AIG. At a health-care conference Monday, JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon vented some frustration, saying “I am a little tired of the constant vilification of [bankers]. This is not a casino.”