JPMorgan announced that its second quarter earnings grew to $2.7 billion, from $2 billion last quarter, thanks to investment banking and stock-and-bond underwriting. The NY Times reports, "The strong showing may put to rest some worries that the bank was allowed to pay back its $25 billion taxpayer investment too early, after it passed the Treasury Department’s stress test in May. But its quick resurgence in earnings, along with Goldman Sachs’s announcement of a $3.4 billion quarterly profit on Monday, is bound to raise fresh concerns about soaring pay levels and growing clout in Washington." That and now JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon "has recently been driving a hard bargain over the repurchase of warrants the government received last fall." Reuters also notes that the bank "said credit quality in consumer mortgages and credit cards is deteriorating faster than it expected" and Dimon expects to compete for banking talent (hello, big salaries).