Yeah, I know what you are thinking, "Holy crap!"
Essentially this is what the Occupy Wall Street protestors have been trying to say, except it has never been reported exactly HOW corrupt the banking system has become. Until now.
If you want to know how we got here, then take some time and read this. (Here is a hint: The majority of the blame falls firmly on the shoulders of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush. Yeah, go figure.)
And if you are wondering if President Obama is trying to do anything about this, the answer is yes he is, in the form of the Dodd-Frank bill. However the facts are that the bill really only addresses the problems "around the edges" and due to significant push-back from lobbyists and their Republican attack dogs, the bill was watered down to the point where it will do little to address the metastasizing corruption within the banks themselves.
By the way Robert Diamond, who quit this week as chief executive officer of Barclays, and was mentioned in the video above, has now had a change of heart and is now telling British lawmakers that they DO need to look at how the banks are regulated (Or essentially NOT regulated) more closely.
Ordered to testify to British lawmakers after Barclays agreed to pay a record 290-million-pound ($455 million) fine for rigging the London interbank offered rate, Diamond said yesterday he was “disappointed” regulators failed to act on repeated warnings from Barclays that competitors had lowballed their submissions. Legislators challenged him on why he took so long to uncover his own firm’s attempts to manipulate the rate.
You might have thought that my headline was hyperbolic, but I think once you really understand the ramifications of this scandal you will feel I was not being evocative enough.
Update: Here is Matt Taibbi's Rolling Stone article, which lays out the scandal quite clearly. Damn!
Why is Nobody Freaking Out About the LIBOR Banking Scandal
ReplyDeleteThe LIBOR manipulation story has exploded into a major scandal overseas. The CEO of Barclays, Bob Diamond, has resigned in disgrace; his was the first of what will undoubtedly be many major banks to walk the regulatory plank for fixing the interbank exchange rate. The Labor party is demanding a sweeping criminal investigation.
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/why-is-nobody-freaking-out-about-the-libor-banking-scandal-20120703
Another Domino Falls in the LIBOR Banking Scam: Royal Bank of Scotland
ReplyDeleteRead more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/another-domino-falls-in-the-libor-banking-scam-royal-bank-of-scotland-20120629#ixzz1zl6frhP3
LIBOR Banking Scandal Deepens; Barclays Releases Damning Email, Implicates British Government
ReplyDeleteRead more: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/libor-banking-scandal-deepens-barclays-releases-damning-email-implicates-british-government-20120704#ixzz1zl6nX947
I agree with your take on the LIBOR scandal's tremendous importance, Gryphen. Unfortunately the news broke around the same time as the Higgs boson "god particle" news, TomKat's divorce, and the US 4th of July holiday. On the positive side, the LIBOR scandal seems to be gaining traction in US media today--I've seen new posts about it this morning on CNN, BusinessWeek, and MSNBC--see, for ex., http://tinyurl.com/7jqnw2h.
ReplyDeleteI shared the CNN link on my Facebook: "why the LIBOR rate fixing scandal = banks taking money out of your pocket." That, I think, is the basic fact that will rile people once they find out what the banks have been doing with their money (yet again).
A financial scandals go, this week's Barclays fiasco is just ugly. But even if you don't care at all about British finances, there are domestic angles to the controversy.
ReplyDeletehttp://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/05/12578496-a-diamond-in-the-rough?lite#.T_Wl57JmHmY.reddit
Indeed. The kicker is in the Maddowblog article's first paragraph:
Delete"Libor, the London interbank offered rate, is a standard interest rate for loans between banks. It serves as a benchmark for more than $10 trillion in lending to businesses and consumers worldwide. In the United States, it is linked to the interest rates on student loans, credit cards and even some mortgages."
And then there's this interesting tidbit:
"This week, Diamond quietly backed out of the Romney fundraiser, choosing instead to focus his energies on not going to jail. As Slate joked, 'Wealthy investment bankers are great fundraiser hosts during your campaign for president -- unless they just resigned in scandal.'"
Mitt Romney Hides His History of Profiting from Abortion
ReplyDelete...Willard Romney is a pathological and deceitful liar who epitomizes mendacity, and besides lying for political expediency, he lies to enrich himself and conceal his business dealings to avoid paying taxes. Recent revelations expose a world of Romney’s lies and his false assertion that he is a Christian. For the record, Willard Romney is a Mormon and not anything remotely associated with the Christian religion, and his relationship with Bain Capital’s investment in, and profit from, a company that disposed of fetuses from aborted pregnancies is just more proof of his anti-Christian beliefs that, regardless the source, making money supersedes morality and his alleged Christianity.
http://www.politicususa.com/mitt-romney-hides-history-profiting-abortion.html
Diamond admits traders' behavior "reprehensible"
ReplyDeletehttp://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/04/us-barclays-idUSBRE86208S20120704
Former Brokers Say JPMorgan Favored Selling Bank’s Own Funds Over Others
ReplyDeletehttp://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/07/02/ex-brokers-say-jpmorgan-favored-selling-banks-own-funds-over-others/?hp
Wait till the one comes out about how the banks manipulated electricity rates, you know the stuff we all use! THAT'S going to turn a few heads, think Enron only national not just California.
ReplyDeleteThanks for highlighting this, G. It's a big deal.
ReplyDeleteBut please don't frame this situation as a Republicans vs. Democrats issue, because, for instance, Reagan and Tip O'Neal had different jobs in the 80's, but were working on behalf of the same people. Similarly, the same situation existed with Clinton and Gingrich and NAFTA. Who were the winners and losers in each instance? I’d say the same groups of folks. The beat goes on, but looking at the income disparity of the last 30 years, it is too obvious which group consistently enjoys a disproportionate amount of the wealth our country generates. The issues of power and protection of the corrupt transcends the scope of party politics; the political system merely provides a legitimacy for the transfer of power to extract wealth from one group for the benefit of another, and gives cover to the greed and thirst for power which drive the corrupt activities by our professional politicians who provide favors in exchange for support by certain groups.
Most of us are partisan on certain issues, and hopefully we are thoughtful in learning both sides of an argument before we take a position in which we often have to "agree to disagree" philosophically on which is the better, more responsible. and ethical tack for our country to take which will allow its people to grow and prosper.
Assigning the blame to one of the two political parties, when both parties have the tools to exercise to force any agenda adopted to be one in which there is a mutually shared responsibility, merely allows the two major parties to alternate merely kicking the can down the road on major reforms that need to be undertaken. The result is that the process undervalues the needs and desires of 98-99% of the electorate--- including Repubs, Dems, Indies and others--- while bowing at the need to their most favored segment of the electorate, the wealthy.
We are devolving more and more into a Plutocracy, in which the government is controlled by the top 1% super-wealthy class for the maximum financial benefit of those same top-1%.
I just wanted to offer some food for thought. From all that I've observed while voting educating myself on the political process and operations of both major parties, without a real commitment to serious campaign finance reform, our vote in November is diluted to the point it hardly matters. Oh, there will always be an issue or two to debate that will capture the attention of the media. But the major trend in income disparity will never reverse itself without campaign reform. I believe that instead, it will only get worse and hurt more and more folks in the middle and working classes.
We've all seen this chart at the link below. Please give some serious thought to the dynamics of what the true underlying factors are which drive this increasing disparity, and which public policies affect these factors. I believe there are many that most folks from all the parties can agree on if we would all agree to look at how we define "we and us" and "them". There's a lot more "thems" that need to be under the "we and us" tent than we seem to realize, and political party is one of the least important factors. Okay, rant over.
http://www.artonissues.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/growth-in-income-inequality1.jpg
If you want to know exactly what Reagan did to start our downward slide into a plutocracy, check out this video from Thom Hartmann
Deletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k71DYM20WRM
Reagan slashed the taxes on cap gains, and regular tax rates, resulting in a gigantic increase in our debts.
I have to also thank you for bringing up the NAFTA debacle. So few people today realize exactly what happened when Pres Clinton backed this travesty that allowed US companies to outsource, outpay, dump US workers, and move their factories overseas with total impunity to avoid taxes.
Worse yet, are the tariffs that got removed from our international import laws during the 90's which allowed slave factories overseas to ship their goods into the US without protecting our own businesses.
We were already suffering after Reagan's massive credit card economy.
Then, combined slam of NAFTA & GATT allowed China, Mexico, and many other countries to bury what used to be a robust industrial based economy.
Then we had George W Bush with his unneeded war, giant run up of the debt, and finally the banking crash & scandal that damn near put us over the edge.
Now we are stuck with a 17 trillion dollar debt, and are holding on by our collective fingernails.
It's amazing that the right, the ultra right, and the GOP don't want to even mention any of my points here, and idiots like Romney, and Paul Ryan still think supply side economics work for anyone except THEM, and the billionaires of this world.
Diamond was scheduled to host a big fundie raiser for Willard. Turds of a feather swindle together.
ReplyDeleteRepublicans will always protect and defend criminal banks, which means our craven MSM will treat them very gingerly. Remember, IOKIYAR.
ReplyDeletehere is more info...... lovely that this can be tied to Robmey, will anything be made of that connection? I sure hope so. We all know the uproar we'd hear if Obama had ties like this, like Jeramia Wright, Ayers.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/07/massive-furor-in-uk-over-libor-manipulation-wheres-the-outrage-here.html
I'm trying this comment again since Naked Capitalism's Yves Smith is also on this list because I hope it's just a tech glitch and not being censored:
DeleteZerohedge has been talking about this for years. Max Keiser and Stacy Herbert have been talking about financial info that isn't reported in the MSM. WilliamBanzai7 has been on this topic of fraud and corruption in our political and financial system since the fall of 2008 and provides visual combat art on his blog, twitter and on Zerohedge and Max Keiser on RT. All three of the above and Yves Smith are on the list below, and voters ranked Max, ZH and WilliamBanzai7 the top 5 on the Huffington Post list.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joshua-m-brown/best-financial-journalists_b_1605584.html
Amazing how arrogant and evil these bastards are . . . .
ReplyDeleteAll over the world, we are all sitting ducks.
And people want to actually vote one of these amoral, greedy, scheming asshole- like people as POTUS. Mr. Diamond had to cancel his overseas fundraiser for Mittens when this debacle broke.
Typical . . .
Here's a graph that shows exactly THE RESULTS of what happened in the 3 decades prior to 1980 and in the 3 decades since. This just blows me away. This is what matters in the life of every family in this country. If WE don't focus on this and make fundamental changes in order to FIX this, we will all witness some needless suffering. And I believe it has to start with campaign reform. First, campaign finance reform; then, the rest of the process. Because no one is going to do it for us.
ReplyDeletehttp://tinyurl.com/Growth-In-Family-Income
It's hard to look at this without seriously contemplating what the trend will be like in the next 30 years.
I'm with you, she's toast! Both your comments gave me pause, but this graph really drives the point home.
DeleteOT but something no one has really mentioned.... Did you know that if Romney is elected he will be sworn in on the Book of Mormon?
ReplyDeleteAnd?
DeleteThat might outrage the Christian Right, but the rest of us probably wouldn't care if he was sworn in on a box of Cheerios
DeleteThat's pretty disturbing. Thanks for the info 8:52AM.
Delete9:53AM what do you mean "And?"? Mormonism is a sick cult like scientology.
Yah, a cult like Christianity also too.
DeleteOh noes! Wait though, on second thought bettere be sworn on the book of mormon than..the quran! or..the bible!
DeleteJust another post from this non-defunct blog. Thanks G.! And thanks for the rant ShesToast. These, I believe, are the true issues and we all need to be much more informed and less reactive to the distractions.
ReplyDeleteSo in effect we have NO leader who cares about change given that they're all receiving Corp funds. Tell me something I didn't know.
ReplyDeleteEl Rushbo at it again
ReplyDeleteBut really, there's no war on women....
http://thinkprogress.org/media/2012/07/05/511307/limbaugh-when-women-got-the-right-to-vote-is-when-it-all-went-down-hill/
Who cares? Just stash your dollas under the mattress like I does, you people are missing the rill news today WILLOW PALIN IS 18 TODAY OMG! Tremendous day for their millions of followers in the 16-25 age demoghrapic.
ReplyDeleteWillow,
DeleteTake your full gas tank and drive away forever.
Sincerely,
Everyone
Gryphen, did you see this? Some white people going nuts over Chris Rock speaking the truth:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lipstickalley.com/f15/chris-rock-angers-white-folks-twitter-410835/
It is amazing how some people have the reflexive reaction that blacks can't speak out about anything.
Clearly these bankers (and others ) do not understand UBUNTU...
ReplyDeleteAn anthropologist proposed a game to the kids in an African tribe. He put a basket full of fruit near a tree and told the kids that who ever got there first won the sweet fruits. When he told them to run they all took each others hands and ran together, then sat together enjoying their treats. When he asked them why they had run like that as one could have had all the fruits for himself they said: ''UBUNTU, how can one of us be happy if all the other ones are sad?''
'UBUNTU' in the Xhosa culture means: "I am because we are"
That is beautiful.
DeleteThat is beautiful.
DeleteBBC covers this every day.
ReplyDeleteYes, they may, but our retarded MSM doesn't.
Deletehttp://www.ianfraser.org/move-on-you-crazy-diamond/
NPR is covering it!
ReplyDeleteAlso -- G, you missed the best part! He was a big time bundled for the Romney campaign. And I think someone at Barclays was an advisor to him on financial stuff -- but I'm not sure about that. I think it was at wonkette that I read that. It sucks that our media aren't doing their job and reporting on alllllll this juicy stuff about Romney.
Yup I was right -- according to wonkette which got the info from the financial times-- Barclays' senior executives have served on the Romney campaign
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, this country is being run by people we DON"T elect, lobbyists. And they are bought by corporate America, again, people we don't elect. The people we do elect are merely puppets.
ReplyDeletePlanet Money also did a good podcast on this recently. It's available as a free download in i-tunes and it's worth listening to because they break it down quite clearly.
ReplyDelete