I have mentioned the LIBOR fixing scandal before. However, it is amazing to me that it is virtually unheard of on news (paper, magazine or TV) and even much of the blogosphere (who the heck invented that silly term?). Where the heck is the outrage? Why don’t people care that they have been robbed of _billions_ of dollars? Is it because they are too damn stupid to understand? So obsessed (or exhausted) from our moronic popularity contest Presidential race? What? Anyway, good old Matt has a couple of followups:
Why is Nobody Freaking Out About the LIBOR Banking Scandal?
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/why-is-nobody-freaking-out-about-the-libor-banking-scandal-20120703
LIBOR Banking Scandal Deepens; Barclays Releases Damning Email, Implicates British Government
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/taibblog/libor-banking-scandal-deepens-barclays-releases-damning-email-implicates-british-government-20120704
The second one is really interesting and one that is sure to interest investigators here in the US (the two or three that haven’t been bought-off or otherwise corrupted (is it corruption when you engage in criminal activity when you are ‘honestly’ a crook?)): it seems that the British government was complicit in rate fixing (though it seems clear that it had been happening before, so it isn’t like the Brits _created_ the criminal activity). As Matt mentions, here in the US there is certainly a huge appearance of conflict of interest and it is very difficult to conceive of a situation where the conflicts were appearance only. I guess that Britain has a stronger ‘socialist’ streak than the US does, so perhaps heads will roll (wouldn’t that be fabulous if it were literal? That would give the crooks a bit of a pause, I bet). I find it hard to develop much enthusiasm that any serious investigation will take place in the US, let alone any prosecutions or meaningful punishment, though I would love to be proven wrong. As regular readers here already know, I believe the oligarchy is firmly in control and any change would be an illusion only to placate the masses (but I don’t think ‘they’ will even bother, the masses are so easy to misdirect).
