European Salon de News, Discussion et Klatsch - 5 July | 69 comments (69 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)

Bob Diamond's evidence to MPs branded implausible | Business | The Guardian

The ousted Barclays chief executive Bob Diamond is facing fresh pressure after the chairman of the House of Commons Treasury select committee described some of his evidence to MPs yesterday as "implausible", as the row grew over who was at the heart of manipulation of interest rates during the credit crisis.
Andrew Tyrie, who could take charge of a parliamentary inquiry into Britain's banking industry if MPs can reach agreement today, ratcheted up the pressure on Diamond by writing to Barclays over some of his evidence.
Hours after Diamond denounced the behaviour of some of his staff as "reprehensible", Tyrie said he would be asking Barclays for correspondence from the Financial Services Authority about its assessment of Diamond.
Tyrie said: "I think, cumulatively, the whole package looks somewhat implausible."

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman

by dvx (dvx.clt ät gmail dotcom) on Thu Jul 5th, 2012 at 03:14:22 AM EST
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Re: Economy and Finance (none / 0)

Liberal Conspiracy - Why the Barclays Libor scandal was straight-forward fraud

As far is my understanding, there were two periods of Libor fixing at Barclay and elsewhere; one prior to 2008 which involved manipulating Libor to boost trading profits indirectly and a second after 2008 where they manipulated Libor to prevent themselves going under.
First of all, disclaimer for Barclays, "they" were all at it, Barclays were just the most thorough in their investigations and the quickest in settling with various regulators. Bob Diamond's ire is somewhat justified for that.
What Bob Diamond is not justified in doing is conflating the two sorts of Libor fixes in which banks were involved.

keep to the Fen Causeway

by Helen (lareinagal at yahoo dot co dot uk) on Thu Jul 5th, 2012 at 06:06:50 AM EST
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Re: Economy and Finance (none / 1)

What occurred before 2008 however was just awful. But what has to be clear is that this isn't down to individuals, when you have simultaneous actions across a system you should blame the system. But before 2008 it was out and out fraud and there should be criminal proceedings. After all, we live in a country where you can go to jail for stealing £3.50 worth of water.

If you are not convinced, try it on someone who has not been entirely debauched by economics. — Piero Sraffa

by Migeru (migeru at eurotrib dot com) on Thu Jul 5th, 2012 at 06:18:27 AM EST
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Re: Economy and Finance (none / 1)