According to the Authority, the bank "committed a serious breach of our client money rules by failing to segregate billions of dollars of its clients' money for nearly seven years... This penalty sends out a strong message to firms of all sizes that they must ensure client money is segregated in accordance with FSA rules. Firms need to sit up and take notice of this action -- we have several more cases in the pipeline."

Strong message! Take that, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon! It’s good to be the CEO.

The fine comes to $49 million. Let's see what that would mean to your average citizen. JP Morgan brought in $108.6 billion in 2009, according to its first quarter call. Let's do the math. If you take $49 million as a percentage of that annual income, you get something like this for varying notches on our social ladder:

A person with an annual income of $50,000 would receive a fine of... $22.56. Less than a jay-walking fine. 

Obviously, an individual raking in $100,000 would be forced to pay twice that. Still seems pretty tolerable, if slightly obnoxious. That's a full tank of gas on your way to grandma’s house, unless you drive an RV.

Likewise, one fortunate enough to be making $5,000,000 per year -- probably a CEO or CFO of just such an institution as JPMorgan -- would be required to fork over, what... give us a minute... a bit over two grand?  Now imagine what a $49 million fine is to a company making over $109 billion.

When will citizens wake up and take action. It’s just another CEO slipping through the cracks of justice.

It really is good to be the CEO.