ROLLING STONE : ROTHSCHILD CORRUPTION GOES MAINSTREAM. Jacob Rothschild Rolling Stones ~”Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds, the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology”. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game. We found this out in recent months, when a series of related corruption stories spilled out of the financial sector, suggesting the world’s largest banks may be fixing the prices of, well, just about everything. Barry Soetoro You may have heard of the Libor scandal, in which at least three – and perhaps as many as 16 – of the name-brand too-big-to-fail banks have been manipulating global interest rates, in the process messing around with the prices of upward of $500 trillion (that’s trillion, with a “t”) worth of financial instruments. That was bad enough, but now Libor may have a twin brother.
Baucus, Soetoro, Roberts, Reid, Japanese National, Japanese National Why? Infernal Mafia Funds Related. California Cities Sue Banks Over Libor Rates, Law Firm Says. Eight California counties and public entities sued UBS AG (UBSN), Barclays Plc (BARC) and 20 other banks alleging they lost millions of dollars because the financial institutions manipulated the benchmark Libor rate. The plaintiffs claim they were cheated out of higher interest payments on investments such as interest-rate swaps and corporate bonds tied to Libor. Complaints were filed today in federal court in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego on behalf of the counties of San Diego and San Mateo, the city of Riverside and five other entities against 20 current and former banks that set Libor rates, law firm Cotchett Pitre & McCarthy LLP said in an e- mailed statement.
Banks already face 30 lawsuits by U.S. homeowners and other plaintiffs seeking to hold them responsible for alleged manipulation of the rate used as a borrowing-cost benchmark. The lawsuits filed today allege violations of antitrust laws, negligence and unjust enrichment and seek to recover losses and triple damages. RBS Close to Libor Settlement With US, UK Authorities: Report. Royal Bank of Scotland Group is close to a 500 million pounds ($785.32 million) settlement with U.S. and British authorities over claims that some of its employees submitted false Libor rates, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people briefed on the negotiations.
The settlement would involve the British bank pleading guilty to criminal charges in addition to paying a penalty. However, RBS executives are resisting any guilty plea, the Journal said. The deal is expected to close within the next two weeks, the Journal reported. Royal Bank of Scotland would be the third bank after Barclays Plc and UBS AG to settle allegations over submitting false Libor rates. Britain's Barclays was fined $453 million in June for manipulating Libor benchmark interest rates, while UBS paid about $1.5 billion in December. "Discussions with various authorities in relation to Libor setting are ongoing. No Viable Connection Between Peter Lanza & US Senate LIBOR Hearings. Susanne Posel Occupy Corporatism December 17, 2012 It seems the alternative media has been caught in purveying disinformation concerning the recent shootings in Connecticut, the father of one of the shooters, Peter Lanza and the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) scandal.
In fact, research proves that Lanza has no ties to the LIBOR debacle, nor is there documentative evidence that Lanza is scheduled to testify at an up-coming hearing regarding the technocratic scheme. One alternative media source claims that: “Peter Lanza was scheduled to testify in the ongoing global LIBOR scandal. In what could only be described an amazing coincidence, the father of Colorado Batman shooter James Holmes, Robert Holmes, was also a LIBOR witness in his position with FICO.” According to Lanza’s Linkedin page, Lanza has worked “closely with many of the preeminent partnership tax advisors in the United States on a daily basis.” Lanza’s responsibilities at GE-EFS include: As Unit Pleads Guilty, UBS Pays $1.5 Billion Over Rate Rigging. Michael Buholzer/ReutersUBS agreed to record fines to settle a rate-rigging case. 11:22 a.m. | Updated UBS, the Swiss banking giant, announced a record settlement with global authorities on Wednesday, agreeing to a combined $1.5 billion in fines for its role in a multiyear scheme to manipulate interest rates.
In a sign that officials are increasingly taking a hard line against financial wrongdoing, the Justice Department also filed criminal charges against two former UBS traders and secured a guilty plea from the bank’s Japanese subsidiary, sending a warning shot to other big banks suspected of rate rigging. The UBS subsidiary, which agreed to plead to a single count of felony wire fraud, is the first unit of a big bank to agree to criminal charges in more than a decade. The cash penalties represented the largest fines to date related to the rate-rigging inquiry. The severity of the UBS penalties, authorities said, reflected the extent of the problems. Banks Facing Suits as States Weigh Their Libor Losses.
States and Localities Take Hit in Libor Scandal. When news broke that the British bank Barclays had rigged the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, it came as no surprise to many in the municipal finance world. Some, like the city of Baltimore, had already taken action in the form of a lawsuit. Use of interest-rate swap agreements tied to Libor soared beginning in the 1990s as governments sought to hedge against rate hikes and add certainty to budgets, with banks receiving fees. When interest rates plummeted once the recession hit, public agencies were faced with two unattractive options: lose money by failing to refinance floating rate debt or pay hefty contract cancellation fees. To make matters worse, recent allegations of banks manipulating the Libor rate revealed further losses agencies may have suffered.
“It was a bad deal to begin with, and now we also find out that the situation was rigged,” said Sharon Ward, executive director of the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center. An extinction. By Rainer Hermann The Hula massacre is a turning point in the Syrian conflict. Based on UN observers, the Western public blames the Syrian army. There are reports from eye witnesses that doubt this version.
According to them, the civilians were killed by Sunni rebels. The Hula massacre was a turning point in the Syrian drama. Requests for a military intervention to stop the bloodshed were heard and violence has been escalating in Syria ever since. Last week [7 June], the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung” (FAZ) challenged that version on the basis of eyewitness reports. Firstly, why has the world public opinion followed a different version?
Secondly, why does the context of the civil war make the FAZ version plausible? The plane of Hula, mostly inhabited by Sunni, situated between the Sunni Homs and the mountains of the Alawis has seen a long history of confessional tensions. The apartments of the three families are in different parts of Taldou. Facebook. MASS DIVERSION: Father of Colorado Batman Massacre Suspect to Testify in U.S. Congressional Libor Banking Scam Case | The Santos Republic. By Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers July 26, 2012 (TSR) - A highly disturbing Ministry of Finance report on the largest bank fraud in history that is circulating in the Kremlin today warns that it is “within the realm of possibility” that the shocking movie massacre in Colorado this past week is but another “integral part” in the deliberate plan put in place by Western banking elites and their allies to collapse the global economy.
The massacre cited in this report is being referred to as the “ 2012 Aurora Shooting ” wherein suspect James Holmes [photo 2 nd left] is purported to have opened fire during the playing of a movie killing 12 and injuring 58 in one of the worst mass shootings in recent US history. (WATCH VIDEO: Eyewitness Testimonies CONTRADICT “Official” Statements) Aurora shooting massacre suspect, 24-year-old James Holmes. (AAP) Dates also said he saw Holmes by the exit door “signaling somebody or looking for somebody to come his way. Colorado (LIBOR) Massacre Linked To Historic Bank Fraud - Killer Does Not Appear To Be James Holmes. COLORADO MASSACRE LINKED TO HISTORIC BANK FRAUD. Colorado Theater Eyewitness Describes Gunman and Possible Accomplice. LIBOR Scandal: The Smoking Gun Showing The Authorities Knew. The Federal Reserve Was Worried About LIBOR Manipulation As Early As 1998. The scandal over the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR) —one of the most important benchmarks for interbank lending—has been heating up, as governments investigate apparent collusion to manipulate base lending rates by some of the world's most prominent banks.
The British Bankers' Association calculates the LIBOR rate by polling 18 global banks on every trading day about the price at which they could borrow from other leading financial institutions. Authorities now allege that bankers deliberately misreported lending capabilities around the time of the 2008-2009 financial crisis. But a research paper from the Federal Reserve's Jeremy Berkowitz (now a professor at the University of Houston) indicates that the Fed was worried about LIBOR manipulation as early as February 1998. In that paper, Berkowitz tests alternative methods of calculating LIBOR rates specifically because the Fed has already seen three examples of misreporting from one bank in early 1996.
Www.federalreserve.gov/Pubs/feds/1998/199833/199833pap.pdf. The LIBOR scandal: The rotten heart of finance. Matt Taibbi: Libor Rate-Fixing Scandal "Biggest Insider Trading You Could Ever Imagine" This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: We end today’s show with Matt Taibbi. He’s a contributing editor for Rolling Stone magazine. His most recent in-depth piece is "The Scam Wall Street Learned from the Mafia: How America’s Biggest Banks Took Part in a Nationwide Bid-Rigging Conspiracy—Until They Were Caught on Tape. " Matt Taibbi has also been closely following the Libor scandal. AMY GOODMAN: Matt Taibbi is with us here in New York. Matt, welcome to Democracy Now! MATT TAIBBI: Good morning. AMY GOODMAN: Explain Libor. MATT TAIBBI: Libor is basically the rate at which banks borrow from each other.
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: But, Matt, you know, I was listening to Lawrence Kudlow a couple of nights ago on CNBC, the guru of business journalism, and he claims this is a victimless crime, that this has been blown up out of proportion by the rest of the media and by some of the government regulators. MATT TAIBBI: Right. JUAN GONZÁLEZ: —that means you’re paying less. LIBOR Scandal Is “Huge”: Eliot Spitzer | Daily Ticker. LIBOR Scandal Is “Huge”: Eliot Spitzer By Aaron Task By Aaron Task | Daily Ticker – Mon, Jul 16, 2012 9:26 AM EDT Follow The Daily Ticker on Facebook! The LIBOR scandal that has engulfed London's financial and political elites is entering its third week and picking up steam on this side of the Atlantic.
Among the latest developments: The NY Times reports the Justice Department's criminal division is "building cases against several financial institutions and their employees. " In the accompanying video, taped Friday, I discuss the scandal with former New York Governor and Wall Street prosecutor Eliot Spitzer. "LIBOR is huge," Spitzer says. More from The Daily Ticker Sheila Bair Sees "Significant More Fallout" from LIBOR Scandal: "It's Outrageous" LIBOR Scandal Latest Sign of Financial System's Rotten Core Why the LIBOR Scandal Matters: 'Destruction of Confidence to the Nth Degree' Banks Are Safer But "Not Safe Enough": Former FDIC Chair Sheila Bair Aaron Task is the host of The Daily Ticker. Yahoo! Libor Scandal May Spread to the US Next. Libor is the world’s most important benchmark interest rate, directly affecting nearly $360 trillion worth of global financial securities.
If you have a car loan, mortgage, credit card, or student loan, Libor affects you. Strangely enough, Libor is unknown to most Americans. For a comprehensive explanation of Libor, check out Jeanne’s article explaining why Libor is such a BFD. Given the tremendous importance of Libor to the loans directly affecting millions of ordinary people from all around the world, many were outraged upon learning that several banking institutions were low-balling the rates they reported for Libor averaging in an attempt to appear more stable and credit-worthy. Directly at the center of the Liborgate scandal stands Barclays, a U.K. -based multinational banking company that emerged from the financial meltdown of 2008-2009 as a global powerhouse.
Many would argue that Barclays was on the very bottom of the list of banks needing government intervention. The Emerging LIBOR Scandal. Libor scandal spotlight on Citi, JPMorgan. The harsh light of the Libor rate-fixing scandal has crossed the Atlantic, with both Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase saying regulators and investigators have requested information from them in a so-far preliminary probe of the case. Share prices for both -- as well as Bank of America, which has not said if it was asked for information -- have fallen sharply this week amid worries they could be in line for the type of heavy fines laid on Britain's Barclays Bank, at the center of the scandal. Barclays has been fined $452 million (360 million euros) by British and US regulators for attempted manipulation of the markets for Libor and Eurobor benchmark interest rates between 2005 and 2009. Three top Barclays executives have resigned and on Friday Britain's Serious Fraud Office said it would formally investigate the case, which has dented London's reputation as a top financial center.
All three have declined to comment on the scandal. Libor manipulation scandal engulfs 16 top banks. As Barclays CEO resigns By Christopher Marsden and Julie Hyland 4 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. The sums involved in the manipulation of Libor (the London inter-bank lending rate) and its European equivalent, Euribor, are staggering. The most conservative estimate of the money accrued to the world’s top banks by these practices is £48 billion ($75 billion). Libor and Euribor are two of the crucial mechanisms for setting interest rates on a vast array of financial products. Traders in London, New York, Japan and elsewhere colluded to manipulate the Libor rate so as to make massive profits or conceal losses, at the direct expense of pension funds and mortgage and loan holders.
This alone would make it the financial crime of the century. The reasons are obvious. Lies, Damn Lies and LIBOR. I’ve been hesitant to write about the LIBOR scandal because what I want to say goes so much further. We now know that Barclays and other major global banks have been manipulating the calculation of LIBOR through the quotation data they provided to the British Bankers Association.
What I suspect is that this is not a flaw but a feature of modern financial markets. And if it was happening in LIBOR for between 5 and 15 years, then the business model has been profitably replicated to many other quotation-based reference prices. Price discovery is not a sexy function of markets, but it is critical to the efficient allocation of scarce capital and resources, and to the preservation of the long term wealth of investors and the economy as a whole.
If price discovery is compromised by manipulation, then we will all be gradually impoverished and the economy will be imbalanced and unstable. We have allowed markets to evolve in ways that make supervision of markets almost impossible. Libor.