Posted on 07/12/2012 1:32:52 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The latest development in the Libor-manipulation scandal is that the banks weren’t really fixing the price of the key interest rate in total secret — US regulators were aware of the sleazy activities at the time, and seemed to have done nothing.
Which should surprise no one.
I can’t tell you how much federal officials knew about the activities of Barclay’s, JPMorgan, Citigroup and the other big banks at the center of the maelstrom. In coming weeks, both Federal Reserve chief Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner will inevitably discuss the mess when they appear before Congress.
Bernanke testifies before the Senate Banking Committee next week, but the more important hearing by far will come a week later — when the House Financial Services Committee questions Geithner, who headed the New York Fed when the sleaze was going down.
If the right questions get asked, the American people will get a firsthand account not just about how much our government knew about the Libor mess, but also of the cozy, corrosive relationship between the nation’s big banks and the bureaucrats who are supposed to regulate them.
Long before President Obama tapped him for Treasury, Geithner was one of those bureaucrats. He worked at the Clinton Treasury, the IMF and then as president of the New York Federal Reserve Bank for five years — where he played a key role in the bailouts and the rest of the government’s response to the financial crisis.
The New York Fed has two main functions: It handles the transactions whereby the overall Federal Reserve controls the nation’s money supply, and it’s supposed to be the chief regulator of the big banks in its region. When Obama named him for Treasury, the banking industry hailed Geithner as a godsend.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
This is an excellent line of inquiry. Congress should push the ball up the court.
Kid Twist Tiny Tim knew about this crap long ago. He was the manipulator behind the scenes in the debt bomb crisis as the president of the NY fed.
Could it be that Timmy’s problems all started when he forgot the free LIBOR add-on for TurboTax?
A liberal talk host here in Vegas was throwing Turbo Timmy under the bus yesterday.
I WAS WATCHING FOX BUSINESS YESTERDAY AND AN ECONOMIST SAID THE SAME THING: GEITHNER AND BERNANKE KNEW ABOUT THE SCANDAL. HENCE, IT REALLY ISN’T A SCANDAL WHEN THE REGULATORS KNOW ABOUT IT AND MAY HAVE ENCOURAGED IT. THAT IS THE SCANDAL.
Look at the charts and tell me that The Fed and its droves of economist didn’t notice.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/11/us-sanbernardino-bankruptcy-eminent-idUSBRE86A1EM20120711
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