You're Still Being Robbed

[g5000]

One of the most revered and trusted figures in finance is the London interbank offered rate (LIBOR). This is the amount of interest banks charge when lending to one another for periods ranging from overnight to one year.

The LIBOR is used as the variable in hundreds of trillions of dollars of finanical transactions and derivatives. It is therefore crucial that this be a rock solid, impeccable, and trusted standard, like an atomic clock that is used to set the time of every other clock in the world.

But it appears some bankers have colluded to set the atomic clock ahead by one second to get a slight advantage over their clients. They have fraudulently manipulated LIBOR to squeak out extra money from the derivatives they sell to their clients.

This is why people need to start going to prison. When all you do is fine them lunch money, then fraud is incentivized and it will only get worse and worse to the point where they are now fucking with LIBOR, for chrissakes.

This is organized crime. These are mobsters fixing the race.

As I have tried to point out several times here, the people who are being ripped off by this fraud are...YOU. If you have a retirement fund or money market fund of some kind, you are the client that is being repeatedly ripped off. If you have a mortgage that is fixed to LIBOR, which every non-fixed mortgage on the planet is, then you may have been paying more than you should have been.

The money they are stealing is coming from your pocket. And some people who are willfully blind to Wall Street's thievery are completely okay with you being robbed. That makes them the best kind of sucker. The willing idiot victim who just stands there as his pockets are gone through, saying, "Fraud? What fraud? Whatchu talkin' bout? I no see no fraud!"

UBS Turning Whistleblower in Libor Probe

UBS AG’s (UBSN) decision to become first- confessor as regulators probe the alleged manipulation of interest rates will ratchet up the risks for other banks that set the benchmark for $360 trillion of securities worldwide.

The bank is seeking to insulate itself from the biggest possible fines from the investigation by turning itself in to regulators before its competitors to gain leniency, lawyers said. The plan still leaves the Zurich-based lender vulnerable to lawsuits from clients and raises the potential antitrust penalties for its competitors.

“Libor has always been a lie, because it represents what banks would pay for funds rather than what they are actually paying,” said Peter Hahn, a finance professor at London’s Cass Business School and a former managing director at Citigroup. “People who have an incentive to make money from mispriced markets are able to misprice those markets, and that is a serious control problem.”

Just like in organized crime, the first mobster to confess and cooperate with the cops gets the biggest break. And that is what UBS is doing. They are cooperating first to minimize their punishment.

And this is how crime rings are broken up. You break one of the mobsters and he rats out all the others.

By making the first disclosure to regulators, the Zurich- based lender will make it harder for competitors including JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and Citigroup Inc. (C) to claim similar protection. UBS’s competitors could face higher penalties for not coming forward earlier, Francis said.

Brian Marchiony, a London-based JPMorgan spokesman, and Jeffrey French, a spokesman for Citigroup in London, declined to comment on the investigations.

The damages, if the probes establish liability, “could be enormous, depending on how they’re defined,” said Peter Henning, a law professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. “It will be a mess evaluating damages, given all the derivatives contracts and swaps tied to these rates. This won’t be resolved anytime soon.”

It is way past time to use the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act against these criminal enterprises. It is time to start sending these mobsters to prison and start confiscating their illegally gained assets under RICO.

Or...we can just blame negroes for our troubles and call it good.

 

[g5000]

I have written to my Congressman and both Senators urging them to go after the criminals behind this fraud and ensure they are imprisoned.

I asked them what they will do about it, or should we expect more of nothing.

 

[Ed Spacer]

I agree. This is why I don't invest.at all.

 

[g5000]

Seems no one cares they are being robbed.

If you do, here is a template I have created for you to write to your Representive and Senators:

Congressman/Senator _______,

I read this morning some banks have been manipulating the London Interbank Offered Rate (LIBOR). LIBOR is used as the baseline variable in hundreds of trillions of dollars of financial transactions around the world, including every non-fixed interest rate mortgage. The LIBOR is to finance what the Greenwich, England cesium clock is to timepieces around the world. It is the scientific standard upon which our entire financial system is based.

In addition to determining the amount of the monthly payment on a borrower's mortgage, LIBOR also determines the price of financial derivatives bought and sold by fund managers who manage the retirement accounts of millions of American citizens.

The ability to manipulate LIBOR is the ability to steal from the pockets of the common man. And this is precisely what has been happening.

Fraud has been rampant on Wall Street, and all we have seen happen when the criminals are caught is a slap on the wrist and a fine. Nor do the fines come out of the pockets of the perpetrators. They are paid from the treasury of their company, which ultimately comes from the pockets of the shareholders. The fine is paid by the victims!

So is it any wonder that fraud continues unabated on Wall Street? Fraud is being incentivized and now we have an organized criminal enterprise which is manipulating the very foundation of the world's finances.

When will Congress finally act? When will these criminal finally be put in prison? When will fraudsters be sent a very clear message that such crimes will no longer be tolerated? How many more billions must we taxpayers and investors have stolen from us before you act?

It seems to me this LIBOR fraud qualifies for prosecution under the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, and that the criminals' assets are subject to siezure and sale with the proceeds to go toward reducing the federal debt.

Not sending these people to prison is sending a message that the only crime a petty fraudster who writes a forged check is guilty of is not committing a big enough crime.

The people now believe our government is impotent or owned, or both.

So what is Congress going to do about it? Or should we the people expect more of nothing?

Please read about the LIBOR scheme here: UBS Turning Whistleblower in Libor Probe Pressures Rivals - Bloomberg


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