LIBOR scandal set to rock U.S. as experts warn it could be 'the biggest consumer fraud in history'

UK Daily Mail ^ | July 12, 2012 | James Nye

[C19fan]

As the investigation into the LIBOR interest rate-rigging in the United Kingdom becomes a financial scandal of tsunami-like proportions, some analysts are openly wondering whether 16 of the world's largest banks have perpetrated the biggest fraud in history. With the public coming round to the global significance of banks potentially colluding like a cartel to favourably set the LIBOR, those same analysts predict lawsuits worth tens of billions being brought against the Western world's largest financial institutions by average consumers. Early analysis suggests that for a period of several years before and after the 2008 financial crisis, the London interbank offered rate (LIBOR) was manipulated to such an extent that a family with a $100,000 mortgage would have been $50 to $100 worse off a month because of the fixing.

[C19fan]

People better go to jail and have their ill gotten gains liquidated to pay damages.

[liberalh8ter]

I'm still waiting for Corzine to get his due. I doubt anyone will face any punishment for this.

[RatRipper]

the biggest consumer fraud in history

WRONG!!!! Global warming hoax and Y2K

[cuban leaf]

—I doubt anyone will face any punishment for this.—

Not officially. However, I’ve been checking tar and feather prices. There seems to be a run on those commodities going on.

[Wolfie]

Please. Nothing “rocks the U.S” banksters. It’s just not done.

[mark3681]

Nothing will happen to these thieves. You all know, as well as I, that this is all wrapped up in global governance. The pols with the power to assist in the manipulation are the very ones that will be chosen to investigate it.

Nothing to see here. Move along.

This will drag on for years. It will be made so complicated as to confuse the average joe to be point of apathy.

Just like another poster stated, what ever happened to Corzine? He’s living high on the hog somewhere and most people don’t even know who he is.

Those of us who care about this sort of thing are so outnumbered by those that don’t that it makes doing anything about it impossible.

[cuban leaf]

Y2K wasn’t a hoax. I was a code remediator. Nothing happened because the problem was mostly fixed. Had we done nothing it would have been catastrophic.

Several of the programmers I worked with saw the potential for catastrophe and actually purchased real estate in backwoods locations.

[ShadowAce]

Y2K was real.

Thanks to people like myself, it was fixed correctly and on time so no real effect was seen by the public.

[KarlInOhio]

Early analysis suggests that for a period of several years before and after the 2008 financial crisis, the London interbank offered rate (LIBOR) was manipulated to such an extent that a family with a $100,000 mortgage would have been $50 to $100 worse off a month because of the fixing.

$100,000 at a 6% "natural rate" would have had to be between 6.75% to 7.5% to raise the payments by $50-$100. At a lower starting rate the percentage of manipulation would have had to be even more (from 3.00% to 3.9%-4.75%). Could they really manipulate it up by 75 to 150 basis points, or is this hyperbole?

[Buckeye McFrog]

When the American Hitler gets elected it will be because he ran on a promise to start sending bankers to Gitmo.

Say Hello to your first Fake White Indian Senator.

[liberalh8ter]

Amen! I sense that’s what it’s going to take to right this ship!

[WaterWeWaitinFor]

I still maintain that some time we will find that George Soros WAS behind the 2008 stock market drop - just a coincidence that it came right when Ozippy would be affirmative actioned right into the presidency.

So, now that Soros is pushing the PAC against conservatives and TEA party folks, like Alan West, what would a second term of Zippy really be like? Frightening. We will NOT have a country left, IMHO. It will take a miracle to bring things back from the cliff.

Pray for our great nation.

[Hotlanta Mike]

I’m still waiting for Corzine to get his due. I doubt anyone will face any punishment for this.

---

Before Corzine there was Geithner. He was head of the NY Fed leading up to the meltdown in 2008...no words yet of an indictment by the Obama/Holder admin...

[liberalh8ter]

You’re right. I forget about little Timmy. Given the connection between Timmy’s dad and Bammy’s mom, no harm will ever come to him during Obama’s reign.

[HereInTheHeartland]

The way I understand this; bank self reported LIBOR rates were being self reported as LOWER than what the banks were actually paying to borrow money from each other.

This was done to mask how much of a premium they had to pay to borrow money.

So if mortgage reset rates on ARMs are quoted from LIBOR; would the consumers not have gotten lower rates on their mortgages?

I must be missing something here.

[C19fan]

I am thinking the same thing. I think the banks would manipulate the LIBOR based on their trading position to make a profit. So on some days the bank would profit by making the LIBOR artificially high.

[Hotlanta Mike]

By the way, Geithner was secretly called to appear before a federal grand jury several months ago. I suspect when a new administration is installed the prosecutions will start to roll...

[HereInTheHeartland]

I understood that the banks didn't want disclose how much they had to pay to borrow money due to their less than perfect financial positions.

I didn't understand they were misreporting the rates to make an immediate profit; but instead more to not report how bad of shape they were in.

Guess I need to read up on this in detail so I know.

[liberalh8ter]

I wasn’t sure that really happened. It was reported he was arrested and then supposedly it was debunked?