Thanks, Hank

Poor Jamie Dimon. He bought Bear Stearns like he was told to by the Fed back when the financial crisis was just a shadow and a threat. Now JPMorgan, the bank he heads, is being lumped in with the rest of the herd in being put on $250 billion of bailout steroids that he probably doesn’t need or want. At best, this may just save the other players. At worst, it makes them stronger just when he’s in a position to run them over.

The New York Times said four of the banks getting injected will receive investments of $25 billion each: Citi, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will get $10 billion each, it said.

The U.S. banks had to be convinced to participate in the plan. “There was some arm twisting,” a source tells us. The non-voting, preferred shares being sold to taxpayers don’t directly challenge management, but they do come with executive comp restrictions. Perhaps bank CEOs fear the whole thing could be rewritten to be more expensive under a more liberal or maverick White House.

The head of the Treasury’s $700 billion financial rescue program, Neel Kashkari, said the program would be designed to encourage healthy banks to participate, and he sounded almost conciliatory to the sector. “The equity purchase program will be voluntary and designed with attractive terms to encourage participation from healthy institutions. It will also encourage firms to raise new private capital to complement public capital,” he told a banking group. It’s not like banks aren’t out to raise money in the private sector anyway.

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson had previously opposed the idea of Washington buying stakes in banks, which is also permitted under the bailout law. But officials say they are now retooling the aid package to provide a direct capital injection. And there are reports that Dimon may be tapped for Treasury Secretary if Barack Obama wins the presidency. Paulson was strong-armed into the job, but Dimon is reportedly interested in it. If you can’t beat ‘em…

Deals of the day:

* India’s Ranbaxy Laboratories , which has agreed to be taken over by Japan’s Daiichi Sankyo for $4.6 billion, expects to close the deal by the end of December, its chief executive said.

* JP Morgan has taken an equity stake in the Dubai Mercantile Exchange, the market said in a statement.

* South Korea’s POSCO said it would go ahead with bidding for Daewoo Shipbuilding after consortium partner GS Group suddenly dropped out of the contest on Monday.