Goldman Non-Prosecution: AG Eric Holder Has No Balls | Matt Taibbi. The Dark Heart of the Libor Scandal. Though, for most, the London Inter-Bank Offer Rate (Libor) interest rate fixing scandal appears to be distant and far too complex to understand, its potential consequences may be as economically devastating as a world war. The Libor is used to set payments on $800 trillion worth of financial instruments. It sets the prices that people and corporations pay for loans and receive for savings.
Given that the fraud impacted $10 trillion in consumer loans, the Libor scandal will likely leave a long list of previous financial scandals that contributed to the Great Recession look like child’s play. It also pulls back the curtain on the mechanisms behind the world economy, its anti-social priorities, its willingness to gamble away the future of billions of people, and the government’s collusion in these operations. The Libor and Its Problems The Libor sets interest rates that banks charge one another to borrow on a daily basis.
Clearly, this is naive in the extreme. The Magnitude of the Problem. Black Dossier: HSBC & Terrorist Finance: “The Notion of Any Dichotomy between the Global Criminal Economy and the ‘Legal’ One is Fantasy. It’s tough being the world’s second largest bank. HSBC, the London-based British multinational banking and financial services giant operates in 85 countries with 7,200 offices worldwide with assets totaling more than $2.6 trillion (£4.06tn). They’re also caught-up in serial scandals: the Libor interest rate-fixing scam, serious charges of drug money laundering as well as suspicions that bank officers “palled around” with terrorist financiers. Founded in 1865 when the British Crown seized Hong Kong as a colony in the aftermath of the First Opium War, British merchants (today we’d call them drug lords) needed a bank to handle the brisk trade in the illicit substance and launched the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company Limited.
Rebranded “HSBC” in 1991, the bank expanded at breakneck speed in the heady days after The Wall fell. ‘Sorry, now Go Away’ Today, the “War on Drugs” rivals the “War on Terror” for top spot on the global hypocrisy index. Moral equivalencies abound. A case in point. No. Ludicrous Times Op-Ed Forgets Entire Year of Wall Street History | Matt Taibbi. The Mystery of Rising Housing Prices. “What we are seeing is a bottoming out of home prices. This is a good thing overall for everyone. It means we no longer have that vicious cycle between declining home prices and buyers and sellers remaining on the sidelines.”
–Gregory Daco, an economist at IHS Global Insight. Housing prices are going up, but demand for housing is getting weaker. How can that be? Typically, when demand is weak, prices fall, but that is not what’s happening now. “All 20 cities in the index posted positive monthly results. Okay, so prices are going up, but where’s the proof that demand is weakening? The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported two weeks ago that sales of previously occupied homes decreased 5.4% in June to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.37 million while new home sales tumbled 8.4 percent to a seasonally adjusted 350,000-unit annual rate, the lowest pace in five months. Supply. Is that just a coincidence or proof of collusion?
One can only wonder. Let’s look at the facts. Say Goodbye to Social Security. In a New York Times editorial (link) written in 1993 the late economist John Kenneth Galbraith made a point that seems to have been lost on subsequent generations—many in the economic elite benefit from the destitution of others. Even more to the point, activist government could put the unemployed back to work tomorrow, but at a cost to the elite. By tying economic policies long known to work to competing economic interests, Dr. Galbraith explained the current conundrum. Economies in the West aren’t working because a small economic elite benefits from this state of affairs. With Barack Obama, of his own initiative, slated to begin cutting government expenditures in 2013 (should he be re-elected), a number of his liberal and progressive supporters have taken to granting that the Federal budget ‘crisis,’ to which he purports to be responding, is real. Apparently unbeknownst to many, the working class in America has been living with austerity economics for forty years now.
A Biotech Battle Royale. The name sounds like it could be the moniker of a really bad hombre – the arrogant, cold-hearted, bandolier clad bandito in a Spaghetti Western who rides down from the mountains with his grizzled gang to terrorize the humble villagers, demanding their meager harvest, livestock and occasionally a young daughter. “Oh no! It’s Monsanto!” Indeed, if, as Mitt Romney averred: “corporations are people, my friend,” the analogy is apt, for Monsanto is one of the most controversial and detested corporations/persons in the world. As many consumer and organic food advocates will know, Monsanto is a Missouri based multi-billion dollar biotech behemoth that bestrides the globe and crams its genetically engineered Frankenseeds down the throats of farmers on five continents, consigning many of them to financial servitude, chemical poisoning and, in thousands of cases (mainly in India), suicide.
Last month, U.S. A new insidious strategy has recently come to light. Take Action: Rep. Corporation That Paid Nothing In Taxes For Four Years Tells Congress It Pays Too Much In Taxes. Bill Moyers and Chris Hedges: How Whole Regions of America Have Been Destroyed in the Name of Quarterly Profits. July 21, 2012 | Like this article? Join our email list: Stay up to date with the latest headlines via email. You can watch the video of Moyers' interview with Hedges at the bottom of this transcript. BILL MOYERS: Here we are, barely halfway through the summer, and Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have stepped up their cage match, each attacking the other, throwing insults and accusations back and forth like folding chairs hurled across the wrestling ring. Governor Romney pummels away at the economy; President Obama pummels away at Mr. CHRIS HEDGES: All of the true correctives to American democracy came through movements that never achieved formal political power.
BILL MOYERS: This is just the latest battle cry from Hedges, who, angry at what he sees in the world, expresses his outrage in thoughtful prose that never fails to inform and provoke. Tell me about Joe Sacco. CHRIS HEDGES: I've known Joe since the war in Bosnia. BILL MOYERS: This is a tough book. Icelandic Anger Brings Debt Forgiveness in Best Recovery Story. Icelanders who pelted parliament with rocks in 2009 demanding their leaders and bankers answer for the country’s economic and financial collapse are reaping the benefits of their anger. Since the end of 2008, the island’s banks have forgiven loans equivalent to 13 percent of gross domestic product, easing the debt burdens of more than a quarter of the population, according to a report published this month by the Icelandic Financial Services Association. “You could safely say that Iceland holds the world record in household debt relief,” said Lars Christensen, chief emerging markets economist at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen.
“Iceland followed the textbook example of what is required in a crisis. Any economist would agree with that.” The island’s steps to resurrect itself since 2008, when its banks defaulted on $85 billion, are proving effective. Crisis Lessons People Vs Markets Activists say the banks should go even further in their debt relief. Fresh Demands Legal Aftermath. Human corpses harvested in multimillion-dollar trade. “Two ribs, two Achilles heels, two elbows, two eardrums, two teeth, and so on'' ... a relative holds a picture of Oleksandr Frolov, some of whose body parts were found during a raid by Ukrainian authorities. Photo: Konstantin Chernichkin/Kyiv Post Kate Willson, Vlad Lavrov, Martina Keller, Thomas Maier and Gerard Ryle On February 24, Ukrainian authorities made an alarming discovery: bones and other human tissues crammed into coolers in a grimy white minibus. From day one, everything was forged; everything, because we could.
Investigators grew even more intrigued when they found, amid the body parts, envelopes stuffed with cash and autopsy results written in English. Bottles of human tissue labelled ''Made in Germany, Tutogen" that were were seized by Ukrainian authorities. What the security service had disrupted was not the work of a serial killer but part of an international pipeline of ingredients for medical and dental products that are routinely implanted into people around the world. ICIJ: Body Brokers Leave Trail Of Questions, Corruption. By Kate Willson, Vlad Lavrov, Martina Keller and Michael HudsonThis is the second installment in an International Consortium of Investigative Journalists series.
In April 2003, Robert Ambrosino murdered his ex-fiancée -- a 22-year-old aspiring actress -- by shooting her in the face with a .45-caliber pistol. Then Ambrosino turned the gun around and killed himself. Soon after, Ambrosino's corpse entered the United States' vast tissue-donation system, his skin, bones and other body parts destined for use in the manufacture of cutting-edge medical products. But before they entered the system, Michael Mastromarino, owner of a New Jersey-based tissue recovery firm, needed to solve a couple of problems. He didn't want to have to report that Ambrosino had perished in a murder-suicide. And he didn't want anyone to know that Ambrosino's family hadn't given permission for his body to be used for tissue donation.
Mastromarino solved both problems the same way: He lied. A Fantastic Product Pizza Parlor. ICIJ: Human Corpses Are Prize In Global Drive For Profits. By Kate Willson, Vlad Lavrov, Martina Keller, Thomas Maier and Gerard RyleThis is the first installment in an International Consortium of Investigative Journalists series. On Feb. 24, Ukrainian authorities made an alarming discovery: bones and other human tissues crammed into coolers in a grimy white minibus. Investigators grew even more intrigued when they found, amid the body parts, envelopes stuffed with cash and autopsy results written in English. What the security service had disrupted was not the work of a serial killer but part of an international pipeline of ingredients for medical and dental products that are routinely implanted into people around the world.
The seized documents suggested that the remains of dead Ukrainians were destined for a factory in Germany belonging to the subsidiary of a U.S. medical products company, Florida-based RTI Biologics. Industry officials argue that such alleged abuses are rare, and that the industry operates safely and responsibly. Awkward Silence. The Real Libor Scandal. 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.Banks are not the only beneficiaries of lower Libor rates. Debtors (and investors) whose floating or variable rate loans are pegged in some way to Libor also benefit.
One could argue that by fixing the rate low, the banks were cheating themselves out of interest income, because the effect of the low Libor rate is to lower the interest rate on customer loans, such as variable rate mortgages that banks possess in their portfolios. But the banks did not fix the Libor rate with their customers in mind. Collapse. Why isn’t this happening? What was pushing the interest rates lower? Wells Fargo To Pay $175 Million Settlement For Steering Qualified Minority Buyers To Subprime Mortgages.
Libor Scandal Intensifies Spotlight on Bank Regulators. ReutersPaul Tucker, an official with the Bank of England, appeared before a British parliamentary committee on Monday. 10:04 a.m. | Updated As big banks face the fallout from a global investigation into interest rate manipulation, American and British lawmakers are scrutinizing regulators who failed to take action that might have prevented years of illegal activity. Politicians in both London and Washington are questioning whether regulators allowed banks to report false rates in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis and afterward. On Monday, Congress stepped into the fray, requesting information about the role of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, according to people close to the matter.
The Senate Banking Committee on Tuesday also announced it was looking into the issue. The focus on regulators and other financial institutions has intensified in the last two weeks after the British bank Barclays agreed to pay $450 million to resolve an enforcement case. In November 2007, Mr. Mr. Libor Interest Rate Scandal: Crime of the Century. Forget Bernie Madoff and Enron’s Ken Lay—they were mere amateurs in financial crime. The current Libor interest rate scandal, involving hundreds of trillions in international derivatives trade, shows how the really big boys play.
And these guys will most likely not do the time because their kind rewrites the law before committing the crime. Barclays Bank chairman Marcus Agius, (L) chief executive Bob Diamond (C) and chief operating officer Jerry Del Missier. (AFP) Modern international bankers form a class of thieves the likes of which the world has never before seen. Or, indeed, imagined. The scandal over Libor—short for London interbank offered rate—has resulted in a huge fine for Barclays Bank and threatens to ensnare some of the world’s top financiers.
How to explain a $450 million settlement for one bank whose defense, in a plea bargain worked out with regulators in London and Washington, is that every institution in their elite financial circle was doing it? The U.S. JPMorgan Told to Explain Withholding Energy-Probe E-Mails. Why is Nobody (in the US) Freaking Out About the LIBOR Banking Scandal? The 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.
Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, responded the way a real public official should (i.e. not like Ben Bernanke), blasting the banks: Barclays bank. (Oli Scarff/Getty Images) It is time to do something about the banking system…Many people in the banking industry are hardworking and feel badly let down by some of their colleagues and leaders. It goes to the culture and the structure of banks: the excessive compensation, the shoddy treatment of customers, the deceitful manipulation of a key interest rate, and today, news of yet another mis-selling scandal. The banks gamed LIBOR for two semi-overlapping reasons.
That is explosive stuff. New Jersey Gov. New Commercials For Old Milwaukee Beer Feature Group Of Friends Contemplating Suicide. WOODRIDGE, IL—Old Milwaukee beer announced Friday the launch of a new series of commercials featuring a group of friends despondently contemplating suicide while drinking the alcoholic beverage and sitting in darkened apartments. According to company spokesperson Jim Sloman, the ads are intended to reflect the experience of a large segment of the Old Milwaukee customer base, namely those for whom the daily indignities and humiliations of life have almost become too much to bear, and who increasingly see no solution other than killing themselves. Old Milwaukee reps say the new advertising campaign will "really strike a chord" with their consumer base. Sloman said the commercials will have elements of continuity tying them together in a loose narrative, including a character named Randall who, irrespective of anything else being said in the commercial or whether anyone is even listening to him, only looks at the floor and says, "Erica…Erica…where did it all go wrong?
" CNBC Experts Say We’re All Slaves To A Global Government Run By Bankers. Coup of the Elites. Corporate Profits Just Hit An All-Time High, Wages Just Hit An All-Time Low. The Facebook IPO: Shareholders Weren't Invited to the Real Party | Matt Taibbi. Gets “Wikileaks Treatment” As Wells Fargo Freezes, Closes Business Account : The Implode-o-Meter Blog. Jon Stewart Knocks Senate Banking Committee for Fawning All Over Jamie Dimon.
Explosive Leak: Trans-Pacific Partnership Trade Agreement Pushes Corporate Sovereignty Over Environmental Laws. Guns for buddies: US weapons sales surge overseas. AHIP Gave $100 Million to US Chamber To Kill Health Insurance Reform. Senate Committee Asks World’s Largest Bank To Self-Regulate. A Giant Among Giants - By Ken Silverstein. Twitter Knows When You Sleep, and More.