In These New Times

A new paradigm for a post-imperial world

Posts Tagged ‘libor scandal’

Titanic Banks Hit Libor Iceberg

Posted by seumasach on July 23, 2012

Will Lawsuits Sink the Ships?

Ellen Brown

Counterpunch

20th-22nd July, 2012

At one time, calling the large multinational banks a “cartel” branded you as a conspiracy theorist.   Today the banking giants are being called that and worse, not just in the major media but in court documents intended to prove the allegations as facts.  Charges include racketeering (organized crime under the U.S. Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act or RICO), antitrust violations, wire fraud, bid-rigging, and price-fixing.  Damning charges have already been proven, and major damages and penalties assessed.  Conspiracy theory has become established fact.

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The real Libor scandal

Posted by seumasach on July 19, 2012

All this is part of the so-called flight to safety whereby alternative investment outlets are blocked off forcing funds into US/UK bonds as the least bad option. The systematic devaluation of the euro via quantitative easing, long sought by Wall Street and the City of London and now seemingly being carried out with the direct bailout of the Spanish banks without creditor or shareholder write-downs, is another pillar of this policy.

Paul Craig Roberts and Nomi Prins

Institute for Political Economy

14th July, 2012

According to news reports, UK banks fixed the London interbank borrowing rate (Libor) with the complicity of the Bank of England (UK central bank) at a low rate in order to obtain a cheap borrowing cost. The way this scandal is playing out is that the banks benefitted from borrowing at these low rates. Whereas this is true, it also strikes us as simplistic and as a diversion from the deeper, darker scandal.

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Posted in Battle for Europe, Currency Wars, Financial crisis | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »

Libor manipulation scandal engulfs 16 top banks

Posted by seumasach on July 4, 2012

WSWS

4th July, 2012

The Libor scandal, thus far focused on British-based Barclays bank, has revealed that global capitalism functions not as a free market, but as a rigged market controlled by contending groups of corporations, cartels and multi-billionaire speculators.

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Top Tories dragged into banking scandal

Posted by seumasach on July 4, 2012

Independent

1st July, 2012

Senior Tories were dragged into the interest rate-fixing scandal last night as fresh evidence emerged that the banking industry denied there were any problems with “the integrity” of Libor five years ago.

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Will we see City bankers behind bars?

Posted by seumasach on July 4, 2012

Independent

3rd July, 2012

The bankers at the heart of the Barclays interest rate-rigging
scandal could be prosecuted for fraud, an offence that usually
carries a prison sentence, it was disclosed yesterday.

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Revenge of a fallen titan

Posted by seumasach on July 4, 2012

Revenge of a fallen titan: Ousted Barclays boss makes damning claims Bank of England and Labour ministers were involved in rigging interest rates

Daily Mail

4th July, 2012

Bob Diamond last night implicated large parts of the Establishment in the rate-fixing scandal.

In a spectacular act of revenge, the fallen financial titan turned on the Bank of England, Whitehall officials and the last Labour government.
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Posted in UK economy | Tagged: | Leave a Comment »