Griddle was set at about 98.6 degrees....
"GOP: Geithner failed to tell Congress about Libor" by Marcy Gordon | Associated Press, July 26, 2012
WASHINGTON — Republican lawmakers are criticizing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for failing to alert Congress four years ago that banks could have been manipulating a key global interest rate.
Where are the Democrats?
Geithner defended his actions at a hearing Wednesday of the House Financial Services Committee.
Geithner, who was then president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said he immediately alerted US and British regulators in 2008 when he learned of problems with the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. He also said the problems were written about in the financial media....
Oh, so EVERYONE KNEW, huh?
Documents show the New York Fed learned in 2007 that Barclays was manipulating the rate.
So it was actually five years, but who cares about accuracy with such details?
Other major banks, including Citigroup Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co., are under investigation for similar violations.
The European Union proposed Wednesday to make manipulating the Libor and other key global interest rates a crime.
It isn't?
A British banking trade group sets the Libor every morning after international banks submit estimates of what it costs them to borrow money. The rate affects trillions of dollars in contracts around the world, including mortgages, bonds, and consumer loans.
Republicans were not the only House members questioning Geithner on the Libor scandal. Representative Brad Miller, a Democrat from North Carolina, wanted to know whether Geithner told the Justice Department about the problems.
Geithner said he did not.
Some Republican lawmakers asked Geithner why, as president of the New York Fed, he used a rate he knew in 2008 to be flawed as the basis for billions of dollars in bailout loans to big financial companies in the crisis.
Please, don't tell us we were ripped-off even more than we thought.
Representative Barney Frank of Massachusetts, the panel’s top Democrat, defended Geithner’s actions. He noted that Geithner informed the top US regulators in 2008 during the administration of President George W. Bush.
They didn't, and many thanks that Barney is leaving.
Ben Bernanke, the Federal Reserve chief, and then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson were responsible for most of the decisions on the bailout, Frank said.
Oh, I'm not leaving them or the whole rat's nest of crooks out and off the hook.
‘‘You were important, but not one of the top administration officials,’’ Frank told Geithner.
Frankly, I'm disappointed.
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Related: The LIBOR Looting Scheme
The Latest on LIBOR
The LIBOR is Life
You are going to feel like taking some when you see what it also cost you, taxpayers:
"Geithner says Libor inquiry will take time; Regulators are trying to determine if taxpayers were cheated, he testifies" Globe Wire Services, July 27, 2012
WASHINGTON — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says regulators waited four years to penalize Barclays bank for trying to manipulate a key global index because the investigation was complex.
PFFFFFFFFFFTT!
Geithner told the Senate Banking Committee Thursday that he alerted US and British regulators in 2008 when he learned of problems with the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. He was then president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
Britain’s Barclays bank admitted last month that it had submitted false information to keep the rate low. Barclays was fined $453 million in settlements with the Justice Department, the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission and British regulators.
Other banks are being investigated.
I'll bet those banks also settle for chump change fines as they are allowed to keep the proceeds of the fraud.
Senator David Vitter, Republican of Louisiana, asked why, four years later, the government has not determined which big banks manipulated the Libor.
Geithner said such investigations are complex and take a long time.
‘‘These things take a lot of time; you have to do them very carefully,’’ Geithner said of the investigations. He said the CFTC and the Justice Department ‘‘started very early.’’
Someone flip him.
A British banking trade group sets the Libor every morning after international banks submit estimates of what it costs them to borrow money. The rate affects trillions of dollars in contracts around the world, including mortgages, bonds and consumer loans.
Geithner said regulators are trying to determine if taxpayers were cheated in the 2008 bailouts of big financial firms. He said a rate that may have been artificially low was used to set interest on rescue loans to the firms.
The fact that we were cheated is not in doubt; it is the amount that is the question.
US prosecutors, meanwhile, are preparing to file charges this fall against traders from several banks involved in a bid-rigging scheme to manipulate Libor rates, not just Barclays PLC, according to a person with knowledge of the investigation.
The charges against individuals, which would probably be filed by October according to the person, center on alleged rate-fixing activity that goes beyond the conduct described in last month’s settlement between Barclays and regulators in the United States and Britain.
So the crisis that is being soft-sold by the banker's press could be EVEN WORSE?
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"Probe includes whether to regulate Libor; Britain also seeking improvements after rate-setting scandal" by Mark Scott | New York Times, July 31, 2012
LONDON — British and US regulators face mounting scrutiny for their passive approach in policing benchmark rates, including the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. Since Barclays struck a $450 million settlement last month over rate manipulation, lawmakers have blasted authorities for having failed to stop illegal activities at the British bank, despite evidence of problems.
It's because (like an industry) the REGULATOR$ are IN BED with them!
The two-month, government-mandated inquiry will focus on whether British officials should regulate Libor and how governance of the rate can be improved.
Currently, the British Bankers’ Association, a London-based trade association, oversees the Libor process, but US and British government officials have raised concerns that there is not enough oversight of how the rate is set....
They have known about it for five years!
The results of the review will be published by the end of September and may prompt legislation to criminalize rate manipulation, according to a statement from the government. The inquiry will not focus on specific actions by banks implicated in the Libor investigations.
I was under the impression it already was a crime.
The systems of western justice look shittier every day!
Steal $50 and you are looking at some mandatory minimum; loot trillions and it isn't even a crime.
Last week, the European Commission announced plans to make Libor manipulation a criminal offense. US and British authorities are considering potential criminal prosecutions of traders involved in the rate-rigging scandal.
So it is a crime after all? Just against individuals and not the corporations, huh?
The British review follows a public outcry against the manipulation of Libor.
Not much of one here; most Americans don't even know what LIBOR is.
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Now back to the Olympics, right?
