Miller said investors should focus more on banks' top-line revenue and outlook than their earnings. "I think investors have accepted the fact that credit costs are going to be high and elevated for a long period of time, but the issue is can they earn themselves out of it," he said.

After all, when economies recover from recession, they usually grow above trend. This means that prices will rise above trend. The fact that there is no evidence of higher prices in the pipeline means that there is no real evidence of economic recovery.

"The pastors surveyed clearly indicated that the economy has hurt them and, for many, giving is the same or down from 2008," Stetzer said. "Consequently, they are showing more caution in their budgets and seem to be more hesitant to try new things."

Betsy Graseck of Morgan Stanley asked if there was anything preventing JP Morgan from raising its dividend. Dimon: Not really. I think we’ve said we really want to see a real recovery before we do that because we don’t want to have to do this again, just in case you have another dip down here. Finally, Calyon analyst Mike Mayo tried to clear things up. “So you expect [nonperforming assets] to go down in mid or late 2010?” Dimon: “Well, Mike, we don’t know when the recovery is.”

“What surprised me was that as much as one in four new entrepreneurs in wealthy countries believed that the global slowdown had created more opportunities for their business, not less. This is a significant and interesting group. They are more likely to be young, well-educated and expect to create a lot of jobs for others.”

“This amendment gives us plenty of additional runway to navigate the current environment and provides the core financing we need to take advantage of the markets as they begin to rebound.” Mr. Eads continued, “We are actively seeking to leverage our expertise to expand the business, and the flexibility that this amendment provides will help facilitate those efforts.”