Wednesday 27 June 2012

FSA & Barclays

< Sees bandwagon, *jumps* ... >

Bit of a coincidence, after the Goodwin post below.  One might have thought, after all the FSA mea culpa in 2008, they would have jumped all over Barclays this time.  But no, they have blown them a kiss.

This is par for the course.  From my own little corner of the universe I can relate that several years ago a fairly clear-cut prima facie case of the same kind of distorted price-reporting - this time in the energy sector, and again involving a blue-chip, household name player - was brought to their attention.  They did nothing - nothing at all.

How can the Barclays case (and, we are led to believe, several more that will come to light in due course) not be one of making a false market ?  All the comments on the previous post bear repeating.  It Has To Be Prison.

Finally, late at night, I have just nearly fallen off my chair as Emily Brainless on Newsnight offers the observation: "it hasn't been proved that anyone lost money over this".  What the **** ?!  The whole point of distorting LIBOR was to make the other side lose money (and win bonus for the dealmaker concerned), on each and every occasion !  Sole purpose of the exercise: and self-evidently, it sometimes had the desired effect - read the emails you stupid woman.

ND

9 comments:

Jim said...

The rule of law is dead in the Western world.It was good while it lasted, but its gone. We live in an oligarchy masquerading as democracy under the law.

Nick Drew said...

regrettably, Jim, I think you are right

Cameron's task to "save the City" from the franco-germanic eurocrats' desire to hobble it, has been made a whole lot harder

Anonymous said...

I too was gobsmacked that such outrageous manipulation of the markets did not result directly in criminal charges being brought. I can only imagine that it is up to the Met to take an interest in the case after the FSA have raised the issue and hope it is all just a matter of time. I am not convinced that authorities in other parts of the world will not take tougher action on their own banks which may leave Cameron having to explain why our big fish have been let off the hook whilst bankers in America and Asia are finding themselves in gaol.

But look who else is in the same gutter! I don't mean other bankers, I mean those that are happy to let this stink slowly pass away. Labour are hardly jumping up and down demanding action, and the MSM are sanguine about the whole thing. THEY ARE ALL IN THIS TOGETHER - never can it have been so obvious that the political class have been so detached from the rest of us.

WInton House said...

I thought the issue with LIBOR in 2008 onwards was that there was an obvious collusion between the major banks to pretend everything was alright, and that they could borrow at a low rate, so kept LIBOR down.

That then kept the world from exploding in an inflationary spiral. So we should all be grateful that they did tell some untruths ?

Budgie said...

Politicians find it difficult to criticise corruption because they are corrupt themselves. Was there anything so droll as watching Danny "milk-the-taxpayer" Alexander MP wagging his finger at J Carr Esq, himself a tax dodging hypocrite.

Jim (above) is right that we have "an oligarchy masquerading as democracy" but that description fits the EU. Politics and democracy have rotted from within as the politicians found they could get away with handing our democracy on a plate to like minded oligarchs in Brussels.

Nick Drew said...

Winton House - that's not really it. Measured in whole percentage points, no-one doubts interest rates have been and are ultra-low since 2008

the banksters were trying to manipulate LIBOR by fractions of a percent - which can make a lot of difference on a highly-leveraged megadeal, even if so small as to barely register on your mortgage account

and they were as likely to be trying to nudge it up as down, or down as up

have a care, Budgie, we may start agreeing again ...

Budgie said...

"have a care, Budgie, we may start agreeing again"

Aaaaarrrrrggghhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!

Mark Wadsworth said...

The ironies of all this are:

1. David Cameron is sticking up for the banks against the wicked EU; and in the next breath he's slagging off the banks because of This Sort Of Thing.

2. This LIBOR fixing appears to have been done to try and instill confidence in the banks, i.e. they lent to each other at artificially low rates. This practice went on until the dam burst in 2009-ish at which stage they realised that conning the markets into giving them cheap money was a mug's game compared to asking for zero interest government bail outs. Cur the then Prime Minister who cheerfully obliged, and the current lot who are equally obliging.

3. I've never actually listened to a word which Emily says, I just think she's got lovely big eyes and a cute smile. Are you supposed to actually concentrate on what she's saying as well?

Stacey Cobber said...

Well, it happens to the most so no worries! I think we have to be more responsible about it. Thanks for the detail. Good luck.
barclays