ELEMENTS OF SUB-CAPITALISM (ONE)
“The American public and our markets rely upon the integrity of
benchmark interest rates like LIBOR and Euribor because they form the basis for
hundreds of trillions of dollars of transactions and affect nearly every corner
of the global economy”
“Banks that contribute information to those benchmarks must do so
honestly. When a bank acts in its own self-interest by attempting to manipulate
these rates for profit, or by submitting false reports that result from senior
management orders to lower submissions to guard the bank’s reputation, the
integrity of benchmark interest rates is undermined. The CFTC launched this investigation
to protect the markets and the public from such illegal conduct, and today’s
action demonstrates that we will bring the full force of our authority to bear
as we carry out that mission.” In this current transatlantic investigation
concerning banks manipulation of Libor and the Euro interbank offered rate
(Euribor), the CFTC fine Barclays $450m ($200m to CFTC, $160m to the criminal
division of the US Department of Justice, $92,8 m to Britain’s Financial
Services Authority). The investigation forced the resignation of the bank
chairman Marcus Agius (he is now back!) and the CEO Bob Diamond. Regulators indicated that world's most powerful
banks have been fixing the prices of almost every adjustable-rate vehicle on
earth: mortgages, credit cards, interest-rate swaps and currencies…ect. It
means that banks like Barclays, Citigroup, HSBC, J.P. Morgan Chase, Lloyds,
UBS, Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank AG (DBK) manipulated the world
economy and $800 t. derivatives market. The practice started in 2005.This manipulation and false
reporting concerning Libor and Euribor is an expression of a culture of fraud
in the world financial. Fraud is an element of depreciation of capitalism.
Deregulation can only lead to the development of fraud, weaken our economic
system and create sub-capitalism.
Aboubacar Sissoko
