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This may send Wall Streeters to prison
NY Post ^ | July 5, 2012 | CHARLES GASPARINO

Posted on 07/06/2012 7:27:06 PM PDT by neverdem

With the four-year anniversary of the financial crisis approaching, Wall Street thought it had dodged a bullet. Now comes the Libor scandal.

The esoteric practice of banks “fixing” the price of the London Interbank Offered Rate (more on Libor in a bit) may have heads rolling — and hard time being served — unlike “sexier” bubble-era improprieties like selling toxic debt to the unsuspecting.

Since the 2008 collapse, not a single major US bank CEO has been removed from his job, much less charged with a civil infraction over these activities. (Ken Lewis left Bank of America over other issues.) We’ve had one failed prosecution of two Bear Stearns managers and lots of wrist slaps such as the one to Goldman Sachs a couple years ago for selling some lousy mortgage debt to clients. And that was about it.

But Barclays last week announced a $453 million settlement with US and British authorities over charges that it manipulated Libor — a benchmark interest rate that trillions of dollars in financial contracts are priced off of. In a manner of days, senior executives were ousted, including flamboyant CEO Robert Diamond — who until now was largely known for having one of the largest salaries in the banking world.

The reason Diamond stepped down so fast speaks to several things, including his uneasy relations with his UK bank regulators, but also the seriousness of the activities under criminal and civil investigation by the Justice Department, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the UK’s Financial Services Authority.

Libor is set by authorities at a UK banking trade group, who take the average of the borrowing costs of major global banks to compute a single interest rate — one of the most widely used benchmarks in global finance. Like similar barometers, Libor reflects...

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: libor; liborscandal

1 posted on 07/06/2012 7:27:17 PM PDT by neverdem
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To: neverdem

I’d like to know when we’re going to start sending politicians to prison. They are the real criminals in this world.


2 posted on 07/06/2012 7:30:51 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (ObamaCare is only the beginning. It's all downhill from here.)
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To: neverdem

Not if they are Obama donors.


3 posted on 07/06/2012 7:30:51 PM PDT by sgtyork (The secret of happiness is freedom, and the secret of freedom, courage. Thucydides)
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To: neverdem

If prison time is handed out, I hope “demoacrat/governor/senator/ceo” jon corzine leads the way.


4 posted on 07/06/2012 7:36:07 PM PDT by RobinOfKingston (The instinct toward liberalism is located in the part of the brain called the rectal lobe.)
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To: neverdem

Not holding my breath.


5 posted on 07/06/2012 7:36:43 PM PDT by Attention Surplus Disorder (A conservative, a liberal and a moderate walk into a bar. Bartender says "what'll it be, Mitt?")
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To: FlingWingFlyer

Nah - Obozo will just pardon them, then offer them a government job that pays even more!


6 posted on 07/06/2012 7:41:20 PM PDT by Ron C.
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To: RobinOfKingston

My sentiments exactly. He’s the first one that came to mind. Well over a year and the MSM has done a good job of keeping him off the front pages.


7 posted on 07/06/2012 8:03:17 PM PDT by SueRae (See it? Hell, I can TASTE November from my house!)
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To: neverdem

[But Barclays last week announced a $453 million settlement with US and British authorities over charges that it manipulated Libor]

$453 million? That’s Chump change.

These jackals will laugh just like the Argent/Ameriquest crew did when the AGs “settled” for $325 million.... at a time when they'd produced 5billion+ worth of (largely LIBOR-based) a$$paper in a single month.

Screw this “settlement” horse manure.

SHACKLE the JACKALS.


8 posted on 07/06/2012 8:41:27 PM PDT by OldEarlGray (The POTUS is FUBAR until the White Hut is sanitized with American Tea)
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To: FlingWingFlyer
I’d like to know when we’re going to start sending politicians to prison.

When you see this.


9 posted on 07/06/2012 8:46:54 PM PDT by UCANSEE2 (Lame and ill-informed post)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

“I’d like to know when we’re going to start sending politicians to prison. They are the real criminals in this world.”
_______________________________________________

Politicians, the media, and bankers - in no particular order.

“They say that patriotism is the last refuge
To which a scoundrel clings
Steal a little and they throw you in jail
Steal a lot and they make you king”

“Sweetheart Like You” by Bob Dylan


10 posted on 07/06/2012 9:53:55 PM PDT by dagogo redux (A whiff of primitive spirits in the air, harbingers of an impending descent into the feral.)
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To: neverdem
If “Libor” is British, shouldn't it be spelled “Libour?”
11 posted on 07/07/2012 12:52:48 AM PDT by Cowboy Bob (Greed + Envy = Liberalism)
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To: neverdem

Interesting.


12 posted on 07/07/2012 1:36:21 AM PDT by Ms. AntiFeminazi
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To: OldEarlGray

Shackle the Jackals!!! I LOVE IT!!!


13 posted on 07/07/2012 2:15:02 AM PDT by Ann Archy ( ABORTION...the HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: OldEarlGray

Shackle the Jackals!!! I LOVE IT!!!


14 posted on 07/07/2012 2:15:08 AM PDT by Ann Archy ( ABORTION...the HUMAN Sacrifice to the god of Convenience.)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

“I’d like to know when we’re going to start sending politicians to prison. They are the real criminals in this world.”

One has to think that the lack of prosecution is due to how much money bankers have contributed to politicians.


15 posted on 07/07/2012 3:44:03 AM PDT by freeangel ( (free speech is only good until someone else doesn't like it)
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To: neverdem

Barney frank, Dodd, Pelosi, Ried, corzine, zero, jarret and a slue of others need to be spending some time in jail before we talk about wallstreet. Why are these cretans above the law?


16 posted on 07/07/2012 4:12:49 AM PDT by ronnie raygun (B B)
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To: neverdem

The reason why they went after all those eye-talian-boy mafia types so zealously was that they didn’t like the competition and wanted all the action.

(One shouldn’t hold ones’ breath waiting for any criminal investigations.)

IMHO


17 posted on 07/07/2012 4:41:41 AM PDT by ripley
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To: neverdem
This may send Wall Streeters to prison...

I'd probably cry for a day or two but I'd get over it....

18 posted on 07/07/2012 5:05:44 PM PDT by varmintman
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