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In reply to the discussion: Robert Reich: The Wall Street Scandal of All Scandals [View all]Kaleko
(4,986 posts)89. Libor rate-rigging has affected 'average' consumers in a staggering number of ways.
Some answers here:
http://articles.boston.com/2012-07-07/business/32565725_1_libor-interest-rates-credit-card-rates
A. Basically Libor measures the wholesale price for money, and is so broadly used within the lending world that it essentially determines what the retail cost of borrowing, for credit cards, mortgages for example, will be. Many types of business lines of credit are based on the published Libor rates.
Libor also affects consumers in many ways, from credit card rates, to student loans with adjustable interest rates, to home mortgages. For instance, 90 percent of subprime mortgages that had adjustable interest rates used Libor to set rates, according to a 2009 study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland. The researchers also found that 45 percent of prime ARMs that is, those given to people with good credit had loan rates derived from Libor.
Q. So how could I have been hurt by rigged rates?
A. Libor is also used to set interest rates in many investment products, so millions of investors, taxpayers, and pension-funds participants could have lost money because they got artificially low returns. For example, the brokerage giant Charles Schwab sued 11 major banks, saying they were surreptitiously bilking investors of their rightful rates of return on their investments.
Each and every one of us has been bilked by the bankers. Both, directly and indirectly, since every nation on earth has been subject to the siphoning-off of its treasures.
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Yes, take away what they most valued, valued above their own countries, their
sabrina 1
Jul 2012
#42
Libor rate-rigging has affected 'average' consumers in a staggering number of ways.
Kaleko
Jul 2012
#89
Matt Taibbi is one of the most effective translators of Financial-ese we've got so far.
Kaleko
Jul 2012
#95
Everyone who was involved must give back every penny they earned during the scandal period.
Kablooie
Jul 2012
#35
Oh, yes. Bankrupt and those involved jailed, with assets stripped. Join us 99%-ers. n/t
davidwparker
Jul 2012
#90
Yes, complete debt forgiveness. Just like the Year of Jubilee in Judaism. n/t
davidwparker
Jul 2012
#91
and it's still being played out, as cities and states go bankrupt, public employees are fired/lose
HiPointDem
Jul 2012
#53
Even I, who has been forced to defend banks from spurious attacks by "progressives"
banned from Kos
Jul 2012
#6
yeah, due process is normally a progressive concept (except for bankers)
banned from Kos
Jul 2012
#69
If I were you I'd be grateful you've been given permission to be outraged.
Guy Whitey Corngood
Jul 2012
#109
Well, if he did it would be the hoodie's fault us much as his. Just ask the Mighty Mustache Of
Guy Whitey Corngood
Jul 2012
#112
I humbly submit to your superior insight. I should have seen it. U R of course, right. n/t
SDjack
Jul 2012
#61
It would create a grave moral hazard to deny the financial elites their billionaire bonuses.
Warren Stupidity
Jul 2012
#67
Top executives of Barclays resigned - which is a tacit admission of guilt.
banned from Kos
Jul 2012
#9
Serious investigation? Not a chance, unless they are also operating state-approved mj dispensaries.
AnotherMcIntosh
Jul 2012
#29
i figured it out before taibbi & reich, i just didn't know the details. but it didn't take a genius
HiPointDem
Jul 2012
#54
It will start in Europe to be sure. Americans might join in during summer reruns.
alfredo
Jul 2012
#85
This was headline news in the UK. US MSM is a week late, despite the global impact of Libor and the
entanglement
Jul 2012
#31
It will be very difficult for any given lender or borrower to prove damages from any given bank
FarCenter
Jul 2012
#36
This is beyond individual investors having to go up against bank legal $$$. It's a global
suffragette
Jul 2012
#84
Where are the politicians saying "Let's get this money back instead of forcing austerity upon normal
Fire Walk With Me
Jul 2012
#46
If "corporations are people too my friends" [Romney quote by way of "Citizens United"],
kiranon
Jul 2012
#107