Barclays Interest Rates

[kaosmark2]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18612279

Lying and manipulating interest rates to give a false impression of security and make a eke out further profit....

The response:

A fine to the bank, which is fairly small in relation to the money they make, and the chief executive gives up his bonus for the last year it was occurring. Not fired, no criminal charges, no long-term damage, just one year's bonus.

What a fucking state.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

It doesn't add up does it! Then again there's always been people above pissing on the little guy. I don't mind people being wealthy but I do mind how they obtained that wealth, on occassions. In this instance it would appear to be via corruption on a massive and corporate scale. And, as you say, no charges are brought. If I did anything remotely out of line at my work and got caught I'd be turned over completely by the authorities.

[kaosmark2]

It doesn't add up does it! Then again there's always been people above pissing on the little guy. I don't mind people being wealthy but I do mind how they obtained that wealth, on occassions. In this instance it would appear to be via corruption on a massive and corporate scale. And, as you say, no charges are brought. If I did anything remotely out of line at my work and got caught I'd be turned over completely by the authorities.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

That's the thing. If the rich and powerful do something wrong, oh well, they get a slap on the wrist, repay a fraction of what they've stolen (not meaning direct theft necessarily), and told not to do it again. The double standards are just ridiculous.

[Ed209]

It is ridiculous that they get away with it. But we let them. Ideally we should be protesting in the streets, but we don't. We just let them crack on with it. They simply don't give a shit about anybody but themselves. That said, we only have one life on this planet and I'm glad I'm like me and not like them.

Edited June 27, 2012 by Ed209

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

And they probably have exactly the same philosophy as you. I only have one life on this planet and I'm glad I'm like me, i.e. filthy stinking rich, woman, cars, coke, power, influence, .... and not like them.

After all, its very probable that there's no pearly gates to be turned away from.

[kaosmark2]

I've been protesting in the streets. It hasn't made a difference, it's just given me a brief sense of false hope that only exacerbates the disappointment later. I'd love to try and find a way to force the issue, but short of planning a killing spree, or training a dog to attack rich people ala Spaced, I haven't got any ideas as to how.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

I've been protesting in the streets. It hasn't made a difference, it's just given me a brief sense of false hope that only exacerbates the disappointment later. I'd love to try and find a way to force the issue, but short of planning a killing spree, or training a dog to attack rich people ala Spaced, I haven't got any ideas as to how.

[kaosmark2]

On the whole the system is against you doing anything that will successfully rock the boat. OK, a few battles might be won but the war seems to be lost. I reckon a lot of it's to do with apathy. I know I'm riddled with it. I just let these people get on with whatever they are doing without protest. Maybe now that I've thought of it I will actually get up off my arse and protest in the streets should there be an appopriate protest going on.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Quite. I'd love to do something, I don't feel apathetic, just disillusioned about the chances of anything having an impact.

[Ed209]

Oh I agree totally. I should imagine they are more than happy with their lot. All I was saying was that I'm glad I'm like me rather than like them. I've mixed with people who are worth between £50M and several hundred million ( via family connections). Although they appear to have everything their lives seem shallow and superficial. Believe me with them lot they are all trying to 'keep up with the Jones's' as it were. The one upmanship and fragrant displays of wealth between themselves are sad in my eyes. Still, as you say, I bet they're happy with their own lives.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

who knows if they're happy with their own lives, and I certainly don't equate money and happiness, but I know friends who have this attitude and its hard to argue against if they are happy.

[eFestivals]

it's part of the standard con that banks have been doing in many different ways.

I followed a link that Tom Watson MP tweeted about a week ago, to an article on Rolling Stone mag with a title something like "what bankers learnt from the mafia", which was a commentary on a trial of bankers from a number of the major banks in new york who had been colluding and bribing to pay lower interest rates than they'd otherwise do.

But hey, the bankers are knocked unfairly, and capitalism would collapse without them committing fraud and robbing everyone as they do.

[windy_miller]

Is this basically fraud? Which if I remeber correctly is a criminal offence.

[eFestivals]

Is this basically fraud? Which if I remeber correctly is a criminal offence.

No, they just have to answer some serious questions. Dave's said so.

It's much like the Leveson enquiry, where people bring in their own evidence against themselves, and where, surprisingly, they never provide anything which shows they've been up to no good. I'm wondering when this form of justice is going to rolled out to all the other criminals in the country...

Judge: are you guilty?

defendant: no m'lord.

Judge: OK. Case dismissed.

---------------------------------------

Meanwhile, just 5 years after the financial crisis started, Mr George has realised that's something is wrong and has called for banking to reform itself. Very well done Mr George, it's a good job we've got someone with your insights in charge, cos otherwise we'd be ruined.

Oh, hang on....

[t8yman]

this is ridiculously massive, something needs to be done. the little guy doesn't have a chance. we need a revolution, trouble is, people are so strapped that we cant afford to rock the boat.

you would think that with the ability to communicate in a way never known before would be a big help, instead it just enables us to become collectively outraged.

surely the banks cant get away with this, its being investigated all over the world. surely one country will have the balls/ability to take these behemoths down?

[Purple Monkey]

I fear the only way any of this is going to change is through some bloody revolution or a civil war. It's actually quite comical how bad this is. What's it really going to take?

The problem is really pride and ignorance - people think this is all there is, this is how the world must be because that's all they know, so there will always be apologists for capitalism's failures because change of any real sort to fix these problems would shake the identities of most people to their very core.

Most people simply cannot accept the fact that their lives have revolved around pretence and lies (pride). It's a self reinforcing bubble of ignorance. Most people have wrapped their identities around money and material worth that any suggestion that they might have to give that up is met with insane, fearful, irrational responses.

It's amazing how much of a psychoanalysis you can glean from talking to people about this - talking about capitalism tells you a lot about how truly selfish, ignorant and afraid some people are. Oddly enough it is those who have a few golden handcuffs (nice car, big house) who get all irrational because the notion that they don't deserve that luxury while so many others go without is too much for them. They deserve their things, they worked hard for them, it wasn't by luck or fortunate circumstances that they have what they have and they don't see why people are moaning. They've been conditioned to not give a shit about anyone else or grasp the idea that not everyone is being given the same chances they had and suggesting that in order to take, you have to give is like a foreign concept, and it gets worse the further up that pyramid you go. People like that are often a lost cause, you may as well talk to a brick wall.

Instead of taking a good hard look at things, these people think that voting for Labour or the Tories again will change anything. When most people say they want change, they don't really want change at all. What they really want is more things on the cheap. The same thing as always, just a bit cheaper, a bit easier. They want house prices to go back up - why should they have to make do with a 4 bedroom detached house? They can't fit a pool in their garden without spoiling the view - oh no! They want to replace their two year old car and go on cruises more than just once a year. They have no real concept of the human or environmental cost of living like that, and they don't give a shit - living blissfully detached from consequence is not the way forward any more.

People shouldn't be worried about 2012 bringing the end of the world, they should be far more worried about it carrying on the way it is.

Edited July 2, 2012 by Purple Monkey

[kaosmark2]

who get all irrational because the notion that they don't deserve that luxury while so many others go without is too much for them. They deserve their things, they worked hard for them, it wasn't by luck or fortunate circumstances that they have what they have and they don't see why people are moaning. They've been conditioned to not give a shit about anyone else or grasp the idea that not everyone is being given the same chances they had and suggesting that in order to take, you have to give is like a foreign concept

[lost]

peston has written on his BBC blog that the boe knew what was going on, doesn't suprise me..

In making false submissions about their borrowing costs,

managers at Barclays believed they were operating under an

instruction from Paul Tucker, deputy governor of the Bank of

England, I have learned.

This belief was fostered after a telephone conversation in the

autumn of 2008 between Mr Tucker and Bob Diamond, who at

the time ran Barclays' investment bank, Barclays Capital, and is

today chief executive of Barclays.

In finding Barclays guilty of attempting to manipulate the

important Libor borrowing rate, the benchmark rate for bank-to-

bank lending, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) made an

elliptical reference to this conversation.

The relevant passage from the FSA's judgement against Barclays

talks of a "telephone conversation between a senior individual at

Barclays and the Bank of England during which the external

perceptions of Barclays' Libor submissions were discussed".

I have established that the conversation was between Mr

Diamond and Mr Tucker, who is a leading candidate to succeed

Sir Mervyn King as governor of the Bank of England.

[eFestivals]

peston has written on his BBC blog that the boe knew what was going on, doesn't suprise me..

Me neither. It just gets to prove that the whole of the banking world is institutionally corrupt - which is something anyone with half a brain must have already realised.

But moving on from there it gets to mean that there is no such thing as 'free enterprise' and never has been

As it happens I was talking to my Mum about her Dad at the weekend - a banker for a major 'empire' bank from around 1930 to 1950 - and discovered that he had so little trust in the corrupt world he worked in that he demanded (and got) to be paid in cash rather thru their bank accounts, and that all the notes were no greater than 10 shillings.

I'm not entirely sure how he felt those things would protect him against the corruption he saw, but the very fact he as a banker wouldn't bank with the bank he worked for says all you need to know I reckon.

[lost]

Me neither. It just gets to prove that the whole of the banking world is institutionally corrupt - which is something anyone with half a brain must have already realised.

[dingbat2]

double post

[eFestivals]

ill be interested to see how high up this goes. Given that manipulating the libor rate would give the illusion of liquidity during periods of financial instability and Gordon Brown is reported to have told the boe to save the financial system by any means neccessary, it may not just be the bankers who are implicated

yup, you could be right with that.

But it's not like slimy Osbourne is any better. He vowed to end PFI, but while in power is extending it even further, which is much the same thing - pretending that a debt is not a debt.

At least with these latest banking revelations some people are starting to wise up where it all comes from. But we still need a screaming front page on The Sun to hammer it home to the dullards - "Thatcher robbed you all".

Yeah, I know, Murdoch is never going to do that. So we're doomed.

Edited July 2, 2012 by eFestivals

[windy_miller]

The Serious Fraud Office are now getting involved.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-18677356

[lost]

if by magic a friend has linked to the following on fb, don't know how reliable the blog is

http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2012/06/28/exclusive-why-the-global-political-class-lies-in-fear-of-the-libor-scandal/

suppose we will see if there is an enquiry