Comments on: Counterparties: Barclays’ $450 million LIBOR settlement

By: FifthDecade

FifthDecade — Fri, 29 Jun 2012 09:40:01 +0000

IT, the problem is simply that those people were not allowed to talk to each other (Chinese Walls) and were thanking each other for manipulating LIBOR rates, which has been described as conspiracy to defraud. The tendrils reach the very top too as current CEO Diamond was in charge of the department that showed such blatant disregard for the rules…

By: MrRFox

MrRFox — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:51:33 +0000

“did i read the situation correctly?” (Infinite T)

Umm … No. They’re haven’t rolled-over and agreed to plead and pay all that money because they are innocent. Barclays’ is no kind of ‘victim’ in this case, IT.

By: InfiniteThought

InfiniteThought — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 13:39:28 +0000

Without going into the merits and demerits of a case that i have vey little knowledge, i want to just comment on the emails that you hightlighted

i have written tons of emails like the one above whenever i have received help from a colleague. To be truthful, i write messages like that to support teams or someone help me crack a difficult situation

the messages by themselves don’t mean that something wrong was done. it just implies that people are thanking each other for services/help rendered

did i read the situation correctly?

By: MrRFox

MrRFox — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 03:15:34 +0000

Everything necessary to RICO-prosecute the entire top-tier of finance, and all its individual big-swinging-dicks on both sides of the pond, has already been pleaded to by the industry. There’s nothing left that needs to be proven – it’s all in the record now.

The will to prosecute is the the only missing ingredient. That’s why The Street HAS to own DC.

It’s not just the US either – check this -
http://www.economist.com/blogs/schumpete r/2012/06/investment-banking-and-politic s

By: FifthDecade

FifthDecade — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 23:18:47 +0000

Apparently this is the fourth time in two years Bob Diamond has had to apologise for the actions of his bank. But Barclays may not be the only ones involved… 16 banks input data to decide the LIBOR rate; the lowest four and the highest four are ignored, and the remaining ‘middle eight’ are averaged out. That means for a manipulation to be effective, it needs to have been carried out by at least five different players.

Robert Peston on the BBC mentioned the names of five other banks said to be involved, so I wait with baited breath.

By: KenG_CA

KenG_CA — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 21:47:33 +0000

Felix, While I love your blog, you consistently repeat the myth that managers of publicly traded companies are obligated to maximize profits. Please read http://counterparties.com/t/contrarian that Ben has linked to, so you can stop perpetuating that nonsense.

As for the WSJ intern fired for fabricating sources, he probably didn’t realize the WSJ isn’t part of Fox news yet.