<story><title>Libor: Bank of England implicated in secret recording</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39548313</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Lazare</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s not really news; it&amp;#x27;s always been clear that:&lt;p&gt;1. The Bank of England knew about the Libor rigging as it happened&lt;p&gt;2. And was, &lt;i&gt;at a minimum&lt;/i&gt;, very happy with the results (given that it reduced the risk of bank runs imperiling the entire system)&lt;p&gt;3. And that nobody involved really thought this was a serious issue, much less a crime.&lt;p&gt;Putting the above together, it would be surprising if there wasn&amp;#x27;t some pressure from the Bank of England to push Libor down; why wouldn&amp;#x27;t they be doing that?  In the circumstances, it would have practically been remiss of them to do otherwise.&lt;p&gt;Of course, it looks absolutely horrific now that we&amp;#x27;ve decided that manipulating Libor is a serious issue that people should go to prison for!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>futun</author><text>&amp;gt; &amp;quot;3. And that nobody involved really thought this was a serious issue, much less a crime.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure where that point came from. It&amp;#x27;s not only a crime, it&amp;#x27;s an extremely serious crime. What on Earth are you talking about?&lt;p&gt;LIBOR is a derivative of daily rate data which is shared between banks. It is not rigged centrally.&lt;p&gt;You can&amp;#x27;t tell investors that the rate is based on a daily measurement of interbank risk, and then just go ahead and base that rate on something entirely different when it suits you. That&amp;#x27;s called fraud.</text></comment>
<story><title>Libor: Bank of England implicated in secret recording</title><url>http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-39548313</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Lazare</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s not really news; it&amp;#x27;s always been clear that:&lt;p&gt;1. The Bank of England knew about the Libor rigging as it happened&lt;p&gt;2. And was, &lt;i&gt;at a minimum&lt;/i&gt;, very happy with the results (given that it reduced the risk of bank runs imperiling the entire system)&lt;p&gt;3. And that nobody involved really thought this was a serious issue, much less a crime.&lt;p&gt;Putting the above together, it would be surprising if there wasn&amp;#x27;t some pressure from the Bank of England to push Libor down; why wouldn&amp;#x27;t they be doing that?  In the circumstances, it would have practically been remiss of them to do otherwise.&lt;p&gt;Of course, it looks absolutely horrific now that we&amp;#x27;ve decided that manipulating Libor is a serious issue that people should go to prison for!</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>blowski</author><text>If it was a good idea for everyone, why not do it explicitly and transparently?&lt;p&gt;Allowing (or even encouraging) a small group of people to secretly make a lot of money doesn&amp;#x27;t seem like a fair way to run the economy.</text></comment>