Taibbi: Everything Is Rigged: The Biggest Price-Fixing Scandal Ever (WOW!)

[antigop]

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/everything-is-rigged-the-biggest-financial-scandal-yet-20130425


The Illuminati were amateurs. The second huge financial scandal of the year reveals the real international conspiracy: There's no price the big banks can't fix

Conspiracy theorists of the world, believers in the hidden hands of the Rothschilds and the Masons and the Illuminati, we skeptics owe you an apology. You were right. The players may be a little different, but your basic premise is correct: The world is a rigged game. We found this out in recent months, when a series of related corruption stories spilled out of the financial sector, suggesting the world's largest banks may be fixing the prices of, well, just about everything.

You may have heard of the Libor scandal, in which at least three – and perhaps as many as 16 – of the name-brand too-big-to-fail banks have been manipulating global interest rates, in the process messing around with the prices of upward of $500 trillion (that's trillion, with a "t&quot worth of financial instruments. When that sprawling con burst into public view last year, it was easily the biggest financial scandal in history – MIT professor Andrew Lo even said it "dwarfs by orders of magnitude any financial scam in the history of markets."

That was bad enough, but now Libor may have a twin brother. Word has leaked out that the London-based firm ICAP, the world's largest broker of interest-rate swaps, is being investigated by American authorities for behavior that sounds eerily reminiscent of the Libor mess. Regulators are looking into whether or not a small group of brokers at ICAP may have worked with up to 15 of the world's largest banks to manipulate ISDAfix, a benchmark number used around the world to calculate the prices of interest-rate swaps.

Interest-rate swaps are a tool used by big cities, major corporations and sovereign governments to manage their debt, and the scale of their use is almost unimaginably massive. It's about a $379 trillion market, meaning that any manipulation would affect a pile of assets about 100 times the size of the United States federal budget.

It should surprise no one that among the players implicated in this scheme to fix the prices of interest-rate swaps are the same megabanks – including Barclays, UBS, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and the Royal Bank of Scotland – that serve on the Libor panel that sets global interest rates. In fact, in recent years many of these banks have already paid multimillion-dollar settlements for anti-competitive manipulation of one form or another (in addition to Libor, some were caught up in an anti-competitive scheme, detailed in Rolling Stone last year, to rig municipal-debt service auctions). Though the jumble of financial acronyms sounds like gibberish to the layperson, the fact that there may now be price-fixing scandals involving both Libor and ISDAfix suggests a single, giant mushrooming conspiracy of collusion and price-fixing hovering under the ostensibly competitive veneer of Wall Street culture.

A $379 TRILLION DOLLAR market.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

1. It's no wonder that politicians are for sale.

[dixiegrrrrl]

24. I canno think of anyone/any institution that is NOT for sale nowdays.

Seriously...

[bloomington-lib]

2. Seems like if you had 500 trillion dollars, you could buy you way out of any trouble.

[Wednesdays]

11. (See post #1)

Rinse and repeat.

[DCKit]

15. Problem is, you don't need but a small percentage of $500 trillion...

to leverage $500 trillion of anything. Not if you're a member of the club, anyway.

Further, anyone who isn't aware that the price of everything is being manipulated hasn't bought anything in the past ten years.

[NBachers]

3. MASS INCARCERATION NOT SETTLEMENTS!

[Wednesdays]

12. Okay. You and what army?

See how that works?

[Katashi_itto]

31. Screw incarceration. Death penalty.

[lordsummerisle]

4. k&r n/t

[arcane1]

5. It may seem strange, but news like this makes me glad I work for a bank.

I hate our business model, our culture, and just about everything else except the people I work with, and the fun of my mere tasks. But because I work for a bank I can comprehend articles of this kind, which I could not do before. Things make more sense.

And I rather enjoy the experience of working from the inside, especially in my interactions with coworkers

[msongs]

6. profiting from the misery others, good for bank employees! nt

[arcane1]

9. Well, that was an ignorant and dickish reply. Thanks for not actually reading my post.

I guess every member of the military "profits" off of war. If you are a janitor in the state of Wisconsin's capitol, then you wholeheartedly support Scott Walker.

We are all doing the best we can. We do not all have the luxury of having noble employers. If the best I could do was a job at a counter-productive company like Wal Mart, would my post get the same response?

I am paid by the hour. My monthly salary is exactly 2.4 times my rent. I make medical decisions based on whether or not I can afford the copay. Every couple of months, I have to rely on Coinstar in order to feed myself until payday.

Yes, I'm getting so much goodness from "profiting from the misery others." Did you not notice that my post was about information, not money?

[Fuddnik]

20. I understand what you're talking about.

When we first moved to Florida, I started doing business with Wachovia. The people at our local branch were a pleasure to do business with. They would do about anything to assist us. Then Wells Fargo took over, and the nightmare started.

I never had to deal with "corporate" at Wachovia, but it started becoming a regular thing with Wells. The same people at the local branch still tried to help, but corporate would drag their feet, and lie to them too. I wound up closing 3 accounts, and canceling two credit cards, just to get away from them. Went to a credit union. If I could refinance my mortgage some place else, I would in a heartbeat. But, it's underwater.

Wells was so fucked up, I couldn't even make a house payment (always 2 weeks early) because they changed all the account numbers and even though I presented the payment coupons, they wouldn't go through. The teller got the branch manager, and it took her about 2 hours to get it straightened out.

Loved the employees. Hate the company.

[xtraxritical]

10. Very dickish.

[fascisthunter]

17. really...? And saying this is a beneficial thing even though it sucks for a majority

is not? Fuck that... this poster deserves much worse. Snap out of it, in fact anyone who feels the way this poster does can change party affiliation without there ever being a real difference. Disgusting.

[lolly]

34. Read. The. Post.

That is all.

[arcane1]

43. Thank you.

[arcane1]

41. Another reading comprehension failure. I was talking about understanding financial nomenclature.

Please, tell me what I "deserve" for having a low-paying job at a bank. Please proceed.

What is "disgusting" is ignorance disguised as moral superiority.

[Egalitarian Thug]

40. This is the conundrum, isn't it?

Everybody's got to eat, pay the bills, etc., so each of us has to choose what we will and what we won't do in order to meet those needs. When compromise becomes a way of life, bad shit can happen much more easily.

If the phrase, "If I don't do it, somebody else will." were eliminated from our culture, 99% of us would be better off.

[creativebliss]

45. True and well said...

I am one of those people refusing to work for corporate America, but I often feel selfish because it puts a larger burden on my wife to support our family. Somehow, she is able to put on a smile, go to work for one of the largest corporate retailers in the U.S. and do her job extremely well. And, despite her superior work ethic and stellar results, the corporate cronies ride her as$ daily demanding more...

Salting the wound, there is nothing she can do but to try to give them what they want. Otherwise, she risks losing her job because there is no such thing as job security or longevity anymore. We are all a dime a dozen. We leave. Someone is right there to take our place...and, often, for less money. It is this very wage slavery that keeps average citizens from being informed. Intellectualism is dying. And, I don't know about any of you...but, every time I try to educate uninformed people with the little political knowledge I have acquired over the past several years, I am accused of being a radical. Unfortunately, even my wife views me this way on occasion. This is why I am grateful for Democratic Underground. However, I just wish there were a way to get everyone to realize that we as individuals still have the upper hand...if only, we could learn to work together. There are so many more of "us" than "them." Since we have the numbers, we could have a democracy again. We just have to believe in ourselves and each other.

This whole financial scandal gets more vast everyday and is inevitably going to crash and burn bigger than any of us can imagine. The banks are not too big to fail. Problem is, too many of us fail to recognize this.

[99th_Monkey]

47. Who was it that said "We'll hire 1/2 of the population to enslave the other 1/2"??

As I recall it was one of the game-riggers at the top .01% of wealth.

[ReRe]

53. I don't know who said it but...

... but it pretty much explains it all, doesn't it? The equation is a little off though. Should read "We'll hire 1/4 of the population to enslave 3/4 of the population."

[antigop]

7. I really thought that Taibbi's recent article alluded to something of this magnitude

I'll try to find it...but the gist of it was, "What if people really understood what is going on? Could they handle the truth?"

When he wrote that, I thought, "He knows something."

<edit to add> Found it...
http://jhaines6.wordpress.com/2013/03/23/wikileaks-was-just-a-preview-by-matt-taibbi-rolling-stone/

The secrets are out there and everyone from hackers to journalists to U.S. senators are digging in search of them. Sooner or later, there’s going to be a pitched battle, one where the state won’t be able to peel off one lone Julian Assange or Bradley Manning and batter him into nothingness. Next time around, it’ll be a Pentagon Papers-style constitutional crisis, where the public’s legitimate right to know will be pitted head-to-head with presidents, generals and CEOs.

My suspicion is that this story will turn out to be less of a simplistic narrative about Orwellian repression than a mortifying journey of self-discovery. There are all sorts of things we both know and don’t know about the processes that keep our society running. We know children in Asia are being beaten to keep our sneakers and furniture cheap, we know our access to oil and other raw materials is being secured only by the cooperation of corrupt and vicious dictators, and we’ve also known for a while now that the anti-terror program they say we need to keep our airports and reservoirs safe involves mass campaigns of extralegal detention and assassination.

We haven’t had to openly ratify any of these policies because the secret-keepers have done us the favor of making these awful moral choices for us.

But the stink is rising to the surface. It’s all coming out. And when it isn’t Julian Assange the next time but The New York Times, Der Spiegel and The Guardian standing in the line of fire, the state will probably lose, just as it lost in the Pentagon Papers case, because those organizations will be careful to only publish materials clearly in the public interest – there’s no conceivable legal justification for keeping us from knowing the policies of our own country (although stranger things have happened).

[cprise]

25. I don't get that NYT reference though

The NYT is just another corporate media mouthpiece now. They can be bought and sold on the market, and their employees ("journalists&quot --as homogenized as they are to the new American workplace--dream of stock options more than excelling at their profession.

I don't know Der Spiegel's story and The Guardian seems at least somewhat insulated from this malady for the time being. But it seems odd for Taibbi to lump them together with the NYT.

[Teamster Jeff]

30. Enter the TPP

The transpacific partnership is supposed to be a trade agreement but they are adding lots if stuff that's gives corporations power over governments.

[midnight]

60. This is the tool that is being put in place and the reason why congress will not create jobs.... We

have been told for almost five years this is a jobless recovery and TPP is why....

[GeorgeGist]

8. No doubt the saps will continue to reach out.

[xiamiam]

19. no doubt..nt

[OnyxCollie]

13. K&R. nt

[gateley]

14. K&R!

[Blue Owl]

16. Give or take a trillion

n/t

[fascisthunter]

18. the investor parasite class thinks this is great

living off the amjority like maggots on dying and dead flesh. Disgusting.

[BethanyQuartz]

33. And yet most continue to lay there as if they were already dead

Last edited Fri Apr 26, 2013, 10:07 AM - Edit history (1)

We make it too easy for them. Although I don't just blame bankers. That's like blaming money lenders in medieval Europe every time the peasants got tired of starving so the royalty could build their palaces. It's all the people who have so much money that money=power and who then use their power to make life good for themselves while making it worse for everyone else that have to go.

Edited for grammar fail.

[KT2000]

21. so it comes to this -

this is too massive to fail.
The US cannot sanction the American banks because we have to have a player in the rigged game.

I have long thought that when a new president is inaugurated, he is informed of how everything is rigged and the limitations of his power to fix it. Fixing it would cause total collapse.
Our government as do others, KNOW this is how things are done.

[Larry Ogg]

36. Being a venal sock puppet for the game riggers is rule number one...

Most wannabe politicians, including Presidents, excepts this rule while competing for the very large campaign contributions that come from the game riggers.

Now most wannabe politicians who don't like rule number one, and refuse to play the game riggers game, will find it extremely difficult, if not imposable to win in an election process that is, you got it, also rigged by the game riggers.

People who think that a new President doesn't know this prior to being inaugurated live in a naive bubble of extreme denial.

It's a sad fact, like it or not, our government, along with the fourth estate, has been reduced to one big fraudulent puppet show.

[corkhead]

38. I imagine that talk they receive goes something like this...

[Larry Ogg]

44. Something like that for sure...

But I believe that it is far worse than most people dare to imagine, and when their confronted with the dark reality, they search for more comfortable premises that do not threaten their bubble.

In effect, they self sensor the truth only to remain slaves to the predator class.

[99th_Monkey]

46. A "Punch & Judy" Show, in the words of Dennis Kucinich.

And he ought to know, having been thrown out of the rigged game
.. ahh ..
I mean gerrymandered out of office by his sock puppet "colleagues".

[cilla4progress]

22. My fb post today

After overhearing a conversation between my attorney and a client. A personal observation, from the trenches, that I think relates to the OP, at least indirectly:

I work in a law firm. We represent the little guy and gal against the big banks and corporations. I am seeing more and more often, where parties are unwilling to work together, compromise, give and take; or are downright dishonest, not disclosing information they are required to; or out-and-out violating court orders. It is my contention and belief that people are acting this way because they see our national Congress and certain politicians and media outlets acting this way. They also see the wealthiest getting away with their actions in the financial world. So the behavior of Congress and those at the top income-wise has far-reaching implications and effects on the behavior and expectations of the rest of society. - Cilla

I got many positive responses.

[cilla4progress]

23. or this

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/25/fsoc-too-big-to-fail_n_3159160.html

[Octafish]

26. And to think some people wonder why the rich keep getting richer...

..and the poor, poorer. They're generally the same ones who point out there are no conspiracies and anyone who thinks so is a "conspiracy theorist."

[Spitfire of ATJ]

27. This is a great example of a "paper fortune"....

Those are the kind that aren't worth the paper they're pri,...oh crap,..these aren't even printed....

[On the Road]

28. Wow -- Taibbi Has a Long Way to Go to Fill William Greider's Shoes

Based on that article, I have no idea what the legal situation is at all.

[Fumesucker]

29. A trillion here, a trillion there

Pretty soon you're talking real money.

[WillyT]

32. K & R !!!

[Civilization2]

35. A system of total corruption,. a rigged game, this is capitalism of today.

Degrowth, Slow Money, Permaculture,. etc.

These are the real solutions, turn away from the rigged ponzi system of endless theft that is the modern economy of the corporatist banksters.

Relocalize and connect to your food supply,. this is what really matters, a strong connection to the source of our life, the land we gain life from, and need to re-focus on.

Cheaply made plastic toys from the corporate slave camps, and the endless noise of celebrity gossip, mixed with the pushed fear of the 'war-of-terror' waged by the bankster class on the world,. is a dead-end and an evasion of life itself.

What is really important? that is what we need to move towards and away from the corporate traps of fear, debt, and war for profit$

Peace.

[formercia]

37. Even if you skim only a half percent

that's still almost 2 Trillion Dollars. Not chump change.

[snagglepuss]

39. .

[abelenkpe]

42. :( nt

[woo me with science]

48. K&R

[RainDog]

49. k&r n/t

[Initech]

50. George Carlin was right: It's a big club and we're not in it.

[antigop]

51. Yes, Carlin was right. nt

[defacto7]

52. It goes even higher than that.

I don't do conspiracy on the subject of power and monetary control because for me it's not conspiracy and it just doesn't matter; I know some things from experience and you wouldn't believe me anyway. Dream on because that's all we really have. Live life like the background noise isn't there. That's all I have to say.

On to the next subject.

[mountain grammy]

54. I'll read it , but will never understand it. Money's in the mattress.

[Newest Reality]

55. It was good to see Taibbi

come out with it like that.

Some people look deeply into this and see things that most people either ignore or are kept ignorant of.

The problem is, it is very unsettling and uncomfortable and that's exactly one of the reasons the schemes work, stay in place and continue to function as if they are not even there from the superficial POV.

So, you find things out. So, conspiracy can be anything from a real live deal to very extreme extrapolations based on somebody's ability to tie information together and infuse a particular world view into their information. That only helps to keep the real thing in a zone that is marginalized and relegated to wacko land. I mean, it's perfect in that sense.

Look into it and you may find that things are not what they seem to be, or as someone once said, everything we know is wrong.

That's a good place to start dealing with it and maybe even finding some real freedom and tangible changes.

Thanks for this link.

[antigop]

57. You're welcome. Did you see the movie "The Matrix"? That's what it feels like. nt

[Newest Reality]

58. Oh, of course!

You bet. The Matrix was an interesting and philosophical adventure.

The ideas in the film come from many sources, so it is rather eclectic, (Plato's Cave, etc.) but one of the influences was Jean Baudrillard. When asked about how he felt that a movie had been made that was inspired by his philosophy, he said, "The Matrix is a movie that The Matrix would make about itself."

You might recall a book called Simulacra and Simulation, that Neo opens to get some contraband. It is hollow on one side and on the other is the chapter: On Nihilism.

This sums it up nicely and gives you a taste of Baudrillard's philosophy. While you can find the book online, it is not an easy ready.

This does sum it up nicely though as per the Simulation we live in and the nature of the hyperreal, or what is more real than real. Think advertising, media, etc.

http://matrix.wikia.com/wiki/Simulacra_and_Simulation

Baurdrillard's insights are profound in their own right and he is in the arena of Marshal Mcluen and others concerning his views of media, et al.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Baudrillard

Welcome to the desert of the real!

Enjoy!

[DeSwiss]

56. We accept your apology.

Now its time for the rest of you all to wake up!

- K&R

[wildbilln864]

59. k & r! nt