Matt Taibbi: LIBOR Rate-Fixing Scandal "Biggest Insider Trading You Could Ever Imagine"

2012-07-19T22:51:02.834Z

DemocracyNow.org - Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi joins us to discuss the pattern of systemic corruption by 16 banks accused of rigging a key global interest rate used in contracts worth trillions of dollars. The London Interbank Offered Rate -- known as LIBOR -- is the average interest rate at which banks can borrow from each other; some analysts say it defines the cost of money. Barclays was recently fined $453 million for rigging LIBOR, and a number of other banks are under investigation. "Ordinary people actually suffered when LIBOR was manipulated downward, mainly because local governments tended to lose money," Taibbi says. "Even the tiniest manipulation downward when you're talking about a thing of this scale would result in tens of trillions of dollars of losses. ... The banks weren't doing this just to make themselves look healthier, they were also doing this just to make money. They were trading against this information in what essentially was the biggest kind of insider trading you could possibly imagine." Taibbi is author of the book, "Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History."

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Published on Jul 19, 2012 by democracynow

Eliot Spitzer speaks to Matt Taibbi (Rolling Stone) on LIBOR Mega Bank Scandal (Total Corruption)

2012-07-09T18:37:12.607Z

Viewpoint host, Eliot Spitzer, Matt Taibbi, Rolling Stone contributing editor, and Dennis Kelleher, president and CEO of Better Markets, analyze the Libor interest rate--rigging scandal engulfing the banking industry.

Barclays CEO Bob Diamond recently resigned after the bank was fined $453 million for its part in the scandal, which involved manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), a key global benchmark for interest rates, by essentially "faking their credit scores," according to Taibbi. And as Taibbi explains, Barclays couldn't have acted alone.

"It can't just be Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland. In fact, it can't even be four banks or even five banks," he says. "Really, in the end it's probably going to come out that it's going to be all of them ... involved in this. And that's what's critical for people to understand: that this is a cartel-style corruption."

Kelleher argues that the Libor scandal is proof that the financial industry "is corrupt and rotten to its core." "The same executives [using] the same business model that crashed the entire financial system in '08 are still running these banks," he says.

'The mob learned from Wall Street': Eliot Spitzer on the 'cartel-style corruption' behind Libor scam
http://current.com/shows/viewpoint/videos/the-mob-learned-from-wall-street-eliot-spitzer-on-the-cartel-style-corruption-behind-libor-scam/

All Videos Tagged LIBOR (True Skool Network) - True Skool Network

Matt Taibbi: LIBOR Rate-Fixing Scandal "Biggest Insider Trading You Could Ever Imagine"

Eliot Spitzer speaks to Matt Taibbi (Rolling Stone) on LIBOR Mega Bank Scandal (Total Corruption)