MarketWatch: Ignore the Libor scandal at your own risk

[marmar]

By David Weidner, MarketWatch


SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Maybe you’ve seen the headlines mentioning “Libor” or Bob Diamond or the fixing of interest rates. Perhaps you vaguely know that banks were tinkering with the rates for their own advantage.

Big deal, you say. So what?

So, basically investors, including your mutual fund, were hosed. So, the banks essentially stacked the deck so they would be guaranteed to win. So, it was an organized effort that included more than a dozen participants. And who orchestrated it all? The cops who were supposed to regulate them.

You should care because of all the missteps of the financial crisis, this one can’t be explained away by Wall Street’s excuses: “We were just stupid.” “It was the borrowers’ fault.” “We misjudged the risk.” “We didn’t see it coming.” ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ignore-the-libor-scandal-at-your-own-risk-2012-07-17?link=MW_story_popular

[xchrom]

1. Du rec. Nt

[malaise]

2. Looks like it wasn't rogue employees (as if we didn't already know)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/jul/16/barclays-boss-change-libor
<snip>

A former senior Barclays executive has justified his decision to order his staff to manipulate interest rates during the 2008 banking crisis because he believed he was acting on the instruction of the Bank of England.

Jerry del Missier also spread the blame throughout the bank by revealing that its compliance department had been told about the instruction to reduce the Libor level, and that no action was taken.

Del Missier, who last month was promoted to chief operating officer, told MPs on the Treasury select committee that he had issued the instruction after a conversation with his then boss, Bob Diamond, in October 2008, when the financial system was on the brink. Diamond was then running Barclays Capital, the investment banking arm, before being promoted to chief executive.

"What was communicated to me by Mr Diamond was that there was political pressure on the bank regarding Barclays' health, and that we should get our Libor rates down," said Del Missier, adding he was in "regular communication, but not always daily" with Diamond.

[2pooped2pop]

3. may all the banksters die the death they meant for us. n/t

[dballance]

4. Nothing will happen to the bad actors

There will be recriminations, much bloviating, wringing of hands.

Then there will be fines that don't put a dent in any of the bank's profits that come along with the typical "no admission of wrong doing."

You see they can't admit wrong doing because it would make the civil suites so much easier for the plaintiffs.

[turtlerescue1]

5. We may not get judicial justice for these thugs,

BUT simply the fact this has been made known is close to miraculous.

[just1voice]

8. It is and I think there are a few reasons, like the Occupy movement and poverty

People are becoming much more aware of the crimes and the massive scale of them as millions have been suffering for years now.

More nefarious are the uber-rich who are likely going to sacrifice many of their previous allies like Barclays in an attempt to garner even more power, so they're allowing a lot of the crimes to be made public.

[snot]

6. K&R'd, and

Nothing is inevitable, except defeat for those who give up without a fight.
– "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" (1961), script by Irwin Allen & Charles Bennett

[JDPriestly]

7. This scandal gives new meaning to the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Shows that OWS is right about Wall Street.

These crooks were stealing money. Pretending to be capitalists, pretending to believe in free markets, they were manipulating the markets so as to capture them.

This is just an abomination.

Talk about corporate socialism. The bankers did not even feign capitalism. Horrors!

2005 -- That's the Bush era. Republicans hawk "you too can be rich," and "rah! rah! capitalism and free markets." But they are really about taking privileges for themselves and controlling the market so that only the in-crowd prospers.

Bunch of criminals. All of them.

Bernanke was at the Fed most of this time.

Bernanke then served as chairman of President George W. Bush's Council of Economic Advisers before President Bush appointed him on February 1, 2006, to be chairman of the United States Federal Reserve. Bernanke was confirmed for a second term as chairman on January 28, 2010, after being re-nominated by President Barack Obama.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Bernanke