KILL ‘EM ALL — LET GOD SORT THEM OUT
This is the single best discussion and explanation of the LIBOR scandal you’re likely to get.
Simply put, LIBOR — the London Interbank Offered Rate — is the rate that banks lend money to each other and it directly impacts virtually everyone in the world.
The 16 banks that set the LIBOR have been gaming a system worth literally hundreds of trillions of dollars and their fraud and criminality has cost people with home loans, business loans, student loans, credit cards . . . you name it, quite literally trillions of dollars in losses.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — this shit isn’t going to stop until some of these motherfuckers are hanging from a gibbet in the middle of the town square.
July 13th, 2012 at 2:20 pm
OK
I’ve had to spend time thinking about this.
The sheer, concentrated thought of this post might have killed some braincells. Emphatically, those braincells would be alive even if I hadn’t sunk a bottle of wine.
So, here we go.
It’s all America’s fault.
Bob Diamond (now ex chairman of Barclays) is American, so it must be America’s fault.
For the purposes of making this argument work, I’m afraid I’ll have to insist that all Americans disregard Margaret Thatcher’s de-regulation of the City of London and determined destruction of the UK manufacturing base. Nor will I accept any points of order that suggest Thatcher’s policies were rabidly followed by Tony Blair or his successor Gordon Brown.
Obviously. the obscene corruption of the British banking system has to be the fault of Americans. British bankers are entirely honorable, respectable and…
Awwww fuck it. I don’t have enough booze in the house to keep this up.
I’ve been picking the cat and dog hair off my jumper for the last 17 years so I can weave it into a noose for these bastards.
I’m just sorry, Scott. I’m embarrassed that I share the same geographical area with these lowlives. The cretinous behaviour of these LIBOR fucktards can’t be excused.
The national shame is inexpressible.
July 13th, 2012 at 2:35 pm
Great piece. Here the UK government wanted a parliamentary-led enquiry into the banks while the opposition argued that, if the press warranted a judge-led enquiry with legal expertise, then that is what was needed for the banks – and having watched British politicians questioning people at enquiries I would have to agree! The government argued something quicker was needed so legislation could be introduced quickly and, given their parliamentary majority, got their way. However, given a coalition government led by millionaire Conservative businessmen I doubt if we will see anyone swinging from a gibbet in Parliament Square anytime soon.
July 13th, 2012 at 2:52 pm
If Obama will only grow a large pair and go after the financial industry as a campaign pledge, we could feel safe from the threat of Romney
Oh, wait, I forgot about “Citizens Untited” thing — Wall St will put a half billion into the repugnican campaigns to start with.
July 13th, 2012 at 3:39 pm
Hopefully the Brits and other European countries have the balls to pursue criminal charges unlike our Bank-money teat sucking politicians here in the U.S. I fear that that the world-wide economic collapse that our Banks started and that we have been fighting off for years still has not come to fruition, but maybe when it does some heads will finally roll.
JP Morgan is still reporting larger and larger losses from it’s recent debacle that started in London. Just waiting to see when it will go over the 10 billion dollar mark.
July 13th, 2012 at 4:30 pm
And still not a single prosecution in this country. Are they fucking serious?
July 13th, 2012 at 4:58 pm
your headline for this post could be used by hate groups…was that considered?
July 13th, 2012 at 5:34 pm
That post headline was and is the unit motto of many a U.S Marine rifle company.
And I’m pretty sure the hate groups in this country don’t require my help in providing them with tag lines.
July 13th, 2012 at 5:41 pm
Sorry, I can’t get behind stringing them up; rather, take ALL of their money, real estate, jets, yachts, Swiss and Cayman Island accounts, etc. – from ALL members of their families, and intern them and their families on Guantanamo or one of the other U.S.-held “secret” holding areas, as we would any other known terrorists (for they are financial terrorists). There are enough other wealthy vultures out there who would give good money to buy the spoils of their piracy. The proceeds could fund new schools, repair our crumbling infrastructure, fund new American jobs. Vive la Revolution!!!
July 13th, 2012 at 6:00 pm
Not only is Matt Taibbi as cute as can be, he’s also an attack journalist with a brain. This video has been out for at least a week and I’m guessing it’s just about at the point where it’s viral. I had to watch it twice to understand what’s going down. It’s really worth a repeat viewing so you can come to grips with what the banks have done to us.
This LIBOR mess is what will bring the whole house of cards down–if the lame stream media ever runs with it. I don’t understand all the mea culpas from our Brit friends, because American banks (of COURSE) are up to their titties in this scandal. Scandal isn’t even the right word for the trillions they are responsible for stealing. They’ve been very very naughty.
July 13th, 2012 at 6:08 pm
Here here
Ted – is there oxygen on your planet??? Like they need help hating on ANYONE……..
July 13th, 2012 at 6:17 pm
The only hope I have for humanity lies with the city mayors that are fuming mad at the manipulated LIBOR rate, which cheated the cities’ retirement funds and general operating funds. Looks like Baltimore is going to be lead plaintiff, with a bunch of other cities dog piling. We will never see the justice we want, but I am willing to place my bets on nearly bankrupt cities going full bore asshole on these banks.
July 13th, 2012 at 10:28 pm
@ted — remember the “nice Jews” who catered to the Nazis, because they thought they were too refined to be taken? The “nice queers” are in the same category, to me.
Give me a thousand Dan Savages, and no Log Queen Sellouts!
July 14th, 2012 at 5:34 am
I especially like the commentators statement that probably the only way to stop this corruption is to basically wipe this whole generation of bankers . . . . sort of makes understandable, the enthusiasm for the guillotine during the French Revolution . . .
For the average dumbed down, God fearin’ ‘Merican, the manipulation of the Libor rates is just too complicated.
For the average American politician beholden to Wall St banksters and corporate CEO’s, any meaningful action would destroy the source of their campaign funds.
It would take a crusader in the same ilk as Spitzer to actually bring the Wall St banksters to justice. So, I wouldn’t hold my breath waiting for either real criminal or civil sanctions in this country.
Until the time that the average American can no longer feed his own children,
. . . . and is standing in soup lines,
. . . watching the moneyed classes eat caviar behind their gated communities’ walls,
Until that time when the average American riots in the streets because he has lost children’s future, . . . the average Joe will continue to watch his Faux News and NASCAR, and rant about how the blacks, the gays, and the Mexicans are destroying this country.
And until that time absolutely nothing will change.
As a side note . . . Remember, the US attorney for the New York district conveniently singled out Spitzer in a selective prosecution for his frequenting prostitutes. The Fed Attorney went out of his way to prosecute a case which normally wouldn’t have appeared on any federal attorney’s agenda. But somehow Spitzer’s crime rose to the top of the heap. Spitzer stuck his head out too far in pursuing Wall St financial crimes and the moneyed classes ensured that it got cut off.
July 14th, 2012 at 6:13 am
Continuum there is not one single thing that you wrote that wasn’t true. Totally fucking depressing, but absolutely true.
Thanks
July 14th, 2012 at 10:32 am
RE the heading/quote. I thought it was the command given to Crusaders as they approached a city of Christians, Jews and Muslims.
July 14th, 2012 at 10:42 am
These bankers and their minions don’t perceive human suffering and have no ethics at all. They have the same type of brain than the serial killers and the serial rapists. They should be treated likewise.
They are unable to see that their conduct can be detrimental to their own future and their children’s future.
July 15th, 2012 at 6:44 pm
“The meek shall inherit the Earth,
only after the wealthy have moved to another planet” -G.Vidal
*Gore-sorry for the bad paraphrase,
I know it pains you
and that your brilliance shines like a thousand suns
-and that I didnt leap from the forehead of Zeus fully formed like Minerva
and I know you’ll go to great lengths to correct me ad nauseam