Along with its first quarter earnings, JPMorgan Chase announced today that the bank had concluded two reviews of the losses by its Chief Investment Office. This is probably best known to you as the London Whale affair, after the nickname given to an employee in the CIO by traders taking the other side of his outsized positions in the derivatives market.

At 8 a.m. JPMorgan began a conference call to "discuss results" with journalists. This is in addition to the most more standard analyst call that will take place at 9 a.m. Journalists, excited by having our very own conference call, will universally make a big deal about this. Although since journalists will have received the reports, which total nearly 150 pages, just one hour before the call began, the questions from the press may be of limited utility (which a polite way of saying, "basically uninformed.")

As far as menacing metaphors go, there's almost no contest between the fiscal cliff and the debt ceiling. The cliff summons up images of plunging to our doom. The ceiling is just something that keeps the rain off our heads.

This is unfortunate because the reality is exactly the opposite. Impact with the debt ceiling would be far worse than stumbling off the cliff. Both remind us that our government has become so divided—both on principles of taxes and spending and along partisan lines—that is very nearly dysfunctional. But the economic impact of the debt ceiling is far more severe than the cliff.

Here's the official statement from the Federal Reserve:

The Federal Reserve Board on Monday issued two consent Cease and Desist Orders against JPMorgan Chase & Co., New York, New York (JPMC), a registered bank holding company. The first order requires JPMC to take corrective action to continue ongoing enhancements to its risk-management program and its finance and internal audit functions, particularly in regard to JPMC's Chief Investment Office (CIO). The Board's order follows the disclosure of significant losses in a large synthetic credit portfolio that was managed by the CIO. The second order requires JPMC to take corrective action to enhance its program for compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and other anti-money laundering requirements at JPMC's various subsidiaries.

You can read the first (London Whale-related) order here; the second one here.

None of the required actions seem very harsh. There are no fines. No one is singled out for wrong-doing. Depending on what standard the Fed uses to review the reforms it is requiring, this could be nothing more than a public scolding. A slap on the wrist, in other words.

The most serious measure is probably the demand that the board be given more oversight of risk-management at JP Morgan. Within 60 days, JPMorgan is required to submit a plan to enhance board supervision of risk, finance functions and internal audit. No CEO likes to be told the board is going to be looking more closely over his shoulder. The order also demands changes to the way senior managers are compensated and the way the CIO is operated.

One very specific thing the order requires is "measures to ensure that the fundamental elements of JPMC's risk management program are effective and implemented consistently across the firm with respect to Trading activities."

That seems to be aimed at eliminating the possibility that one trading desk at the bank could be operating under different measure of risk — as happened in the case of the CIO. When the bank scrapped the CIO's approach to "Value at Risk," the units nearly doubled, according to reports.

—By CNBC's John Carney; Follow him on Twitter @Carney

So what was it that made the Obama administration strike the death knell of the platinum coin idea?

Many of us assumed it was killed as part of the political strategy of the White House. Perhaps the idea of minting a high-value platinum coin registered with internal polls as repulsive to the public. Or perhaps the administration shot down the idea in order to make it clear to Republicans that refusing to raise the debt ceiling would lead to a government shutdown.

Zeke Miller at Buzzfeed says that neither of these ideas is right. Instead, the idea was quietly put to rest by the Federal Reserve. Miller reports that a "senior administration official" claims that the "independent central bank would not have credited the Treasury's accounts for the vast sum for depositing the coin."

President Barack Obama may have just hinted that his administration will prioritize payment on government bonds over other obligations—a move that would allow the United States to avoid a default on its debt in the event that the debt ceiling is not raised.

At a press conference at the White House, Obama listed a number of programs that the government would not be able to pay for if the debt ceiling isn't raised. He included such things as Social Security benefits, salaries for air-traffic control and veteran's benefits. But he quite clearly—and almost certainly, intentionally—left out the idea that the U.S. might not make all debt payments as they come due.

When news hit Saturday evening that the Treasury Department had put the kibosh on the trillion platinum coin, the main response I picked up from people was something along the lines of: "Well, thank goodness that silliness is over."

The other response was: "What's the platinum coin?"

Very few people seem concerned that the Obama administration was declaring that it was willing to play chicken with the GOP over the nation's ability to pay its bills. This may turn out to be a tremendous error of judgment.

A Swissie Sigh of Relief

• The "biggest surprise" overnight was the "breakout move" in the euro/Swiss franc currency pair which hit €1.2270 – the highest level in over a year – on "growing investor confidence" in the euro zone's financial situation, per BK Asset Management.
  
• Recall the Swiss became one of the world's biggest buyers of foreign reserves last year as the central bank refused to allow the currency, benefitting from safe-haven flows out of the euro zone, to appreciate beyond €1.20; the super-strong Swissie was seen as a threat to tourism and exports, two of Switzerland's most important industries.
  
• Now, the pressure is starting to come off; renewed confidence in the euro zone is supporting the unwind trade, bolstering the euro and opening "the path to late 2011 highs near the 1.2400 level," notes BK; "With periphery sovereign debt yields in both Italy and Spain declining markedly over the past several months the risk of fracture has been reduced significantly. Therefore the 'euro breakup' trade is being unwound with EUR/CHF one of the key beneficiaries."
  

…it's not the dollar/yen

--That currency pair breached another key level this morning as the yen punched through 89 to the U.S. dollar, a two-and-a-half year high, on news of fresh stimulus and Japan's second-largest current-account deficit on record in November; the Nikkei responded by jumping to 22-month highs as Japanese exporters rallied. In fact, per Dow Jones, the Nikkei has now rallied for nine consecutive weeks, its longest bull run since the fourth quarter of 1988 (in other words, since before its spectacular collapse the following year which ushered in the economic malaise Japan has yet to entirely fend off).

Just when you thought you knew everything about the trillion dollar platinum coin, you may be surprised to find out that there's more mileage than you had imagined behind the quick-fix idea for the debt ceiling

President Barack Obama is sending a pointed message to Republicans by nominating Jack Lew as Treasury Secretary: I'm not backing down from this budget fight.