Matt Taibbi Explains The LIBOR Bankster Scam

By on July 6, 2012 in News 21

Disgraced former New York Governor Eliot Spitzer just might have a future as a talk show host if he keeps booking amazing guests like Matt Taibbi for Current TV:

…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.”…

[continues at Current TV]

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  • charlieprimero

    Notice how these media spokeholes never address the fundamental problem of Socialized Capitalism where theft and rent-seeking are built in.  Always they cry only for “more regulations” (written by lobbyists).  Keep the Disinfo flowing!

    • Liam_McGonagle

      Maybe they keep talking about regulation because no meaningful regulations ever get implemented.

      Taibbi has actually been one of the louder and clearer voices speaking out against socialized capitalism–a good recent example would be the contempt he expressed for JP Morgan Chase, who lost maybe $9 billion in a fruity speculative scheme whilst enjoying the benefits of being a federally guaranteed institution.  I don’t know how you could have missed that one.

      Is this just a case of frustration and/or sleep deprivation?  Or is there some particular axe to grind here?  There is just no plausible way a “Libertarian” can spin this story into a morality tale supporting deregulation.

      • charlieprimero

         You really don’t know who writes “regulation” do you?

  • http://www.ContraControl.com/ Zenc

    I’m looking forward to the day when we can legally take these “financial elites” out and machine gun them wholesale.

    • Marklar_Prime

       We can, corruption on this scale and it’s consequences are a matter of national security. This surely qualifies as treason and the penalty can be death. Unfortunately we are flouride sucking pussies and we will do nothing.

      • JohnFrancisBittrich

        lol there are people who are still afraid of fluoride in the water in the 21st century.

        • http://www.ContraControl.com/ Zenc

          If you’re not afraid of fluoride, then you haven’t read the MSDS.

      • http://www.ContraControl.com/ Zenc

        There is a good case to be made for acting and then pleading necessity.

        However, I can’t advocate that position because doing so may be interpreted as an illegal threat.

        So instead I’m going to advocate that we make such actions legal, then implement them.
        :)

    • VaudeVillain

      You could just stop accepting their money in exchange for your useful goods and services. Once the banksters realize money is inedible, it’s only a matter of time before they come around.

      • http://www.ContraControl.com/ Zenc

        What is it that the stock traders say?

        “The market can remain irrational longer than you can stay solvent.”

        I’m sure that withholding my petty contributions won’t make the system crash before I starve to death.

        However, don’t think that I don’t do everything I reasonably can (along with few unreasonable things).

  • mannyfurious

    Taibbi gets all the love (often for good reason), but Tim Dickinson is really the best writer/reporter at Rolling Stone these days. 

  • tooCents

    Eliot Spitzer isn’t truly disgraced. He hooked up with a call girl. WOOPTY DOOO! Wall Street sleezz bags that cheered Spitzer’s inane media spectacle are huge are major clients of these women. Everybody knows that but of course who wouldn’t from watching the disgraceful, stupid corporate media. What a crock. It was a political take down and I refuse to care about men paying women for sex.

    • VaudeVillain

      Eliot Spitzer built his entire political career on his success as a prosecutor: success he had specifically while targeting large prostitution rings.

      If it weren’t for the fact that he spent so much of his career expressly going after men like himself, then you would have a point. As it is, he completely undercut and discredited his own record by patronizing prostitutes.

      • tooCents

        So what. Success as a prosecutor means success in an evil system laughably called “the Justice System”. If he’d never prosecuted a single prostitute he still would be guilty of immoral actions. Hypocrisy when it comes to sex isn’t so much an issue for me when I know people are judgmental, hypocritical freaks when it comes to sex and when -this is MY issue- I damn well know why they took him down.

  • Purchasing Power

     The investigation into this global financial corruption of epic per portions will be quick and there will be no justice brought forward. These people own the investigators and if they don’t they will purchase them.Network TV has new summer schedule on now…UH what were we talking about again, must not have been important I can’t remember.

  • http://twitter.com/TomWinnifrith Tom Winnifrith

    have some fun at the expense of bankster bob

    http://tomwinnifrith.com/articles/112/bob-diamond-caption-competition

  • Irish Potato Gun

    I’m against drone assassinations but… if anyone deserves it.

  • namvetted68

    Banksters were so comfortable manipulating the LIBOR that it was if they were ordering lunch at a local diner. 

  • DeepCough

    I watched “The Other Guys” (2010) just last night, and didn’t realize how a crazy, buddy-cop comedy like that was so very serious in its end message.

  • http://buzzcoastin.posterous.com BuzzCoastin

    “Why did I rob banks?
    Because I enjoyed it. I loved it.
    I was more alive when I was inside a bank, robbing it,
    than at any other time in my life.
    I enjoyed everything about it so much that one or two weeks later
    I’d be out looking for the next job.
    But to me the money was the chips, that’s all.”
    Willie Sutton 

    corruption goes with money
    the same way wet goes with water
    regulation can keep it in check
    when the foxes aren’t guarding the hen house

  • Noah Way

    The safest, easiest and most profitable way to rob a bank is to own one.