Romney: JPMorgan's $3 billion loss is 'the way America works'

Presumptive Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Wednesday defended a shocking $3 billion loss on derivatives by JPMorgan Chase & Co. by saying it was just "the way America works."

"I would not rush to pass new legislation or new regulation," Romney said during a Wednesday interview with Hot Air blogger Ed Morrissey. "This is, in the normal course of business, a large loss but certainly not one which is crippling or threatening to the institution."

"This was not a loss to the taxpayers of America; this was a loss to shareholders and owners of JPMorgan and that’s the way America works," the former Bain Capital executive explained. "The $2 billion JPMorgan lost, someone else gained."

JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon announced last week that his firm had lost $2 billion gambling on derivatives, but by Wednesday, experts said the losses had surged to at least $3 billion.

Watch this video from MSNBC's The Ed Show, broadcast May 17, 2012.

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(h/t: Bloomberg, Think Progress)