Monday 23 July 2012

Criminal Bankers Exposed 10: The Investment Game is Rigged


- by David Wilcock
  20th July 2012



JP MORGAN DIVORCES THE VATICAN BANK

On 19 March 2012 JP Morgan shocked the financial world by suddenly and abruptly "divorcing" the Vatican Bank.


The announcement was made public after the separation had already started - and less than two weeks before the divorce was complete.  This was clearly a sign that the Federal Reserve bankers knew troubles were ahead - and were scrambling for cover as they broke into rival, warring factions:


March 19: JP Morgan Divorces the Vatican Bank


VATICAN CITY/MILAN  March 19 (Reuters) - "JP Morgan Chase is closing the Vatican bank's account with an Italian branch of the U.S. banking giant because of concerns about a lack of transparency at the Holy See's financial institution, Italian newspapers reported.



"The move is a blow to the Vatican's drive to have its bank included in Europe's "white list" of states that comply with international standards against tax fraud and money-laundering. The bank, formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion (IOR), enacted major reforms last year in an attempt to get Europe's seal of approval and put behind it scandals that have included accusations of money laundering and fraud.

"Italy's leading financial daily "Il Sole 24 Ore" reported at the weekend that JP Morgan Chase in Milan had told the IOR of the closing of its account in a letter on 15 Feb 2012. The letter said the IOR's account in Italy's business capital would gradually be phased out starting on March 16th and closed on 30th March 2012.




"In Milan, JP Morgan Chase declined to comment and the Vatican also had no comment."




BARCLAYS CEO SUDDENLY RESIGNS ON JULY 2ND


Now, as we jump back into our timeline, the Vatican scandal got worse as of June 5th, after JP Morgan fled the scene - and the story got major publicity as of July 2nd 2012.

Then, the very next day, the CEO of Barclay Bank suddenly resigned - even after he had been digging his heels in and saying "hell no, I won't go" before that. What kind of pressure was applied to Mr. Diamond to make him suddenly shift so dramatically?

July 3: Barclays CEO Suddenly Resigns, 24 Hours After Defiant Self-Defense




"Bob Diamond has quit as chief executive of Barclays bank in a shock twist to the rate-rigging scandal.  Marcus Agius, who anounced his intention to resign as chairman only yesterday [July 2nd], is to take over the running of the bank while a successor to Mr Diamond is found. 


"The announcement was unexpected in that Mr Diamond had made it clear to staff in a memo 24 hours earlier [July 1st] that he had no intention of falling on his sword - saying it was his responsibility to restore the bank's reputation."



PEOPLE START REALIZING THE WHOLE GAME IS RIGGED


On July 3rd, the same day as our Current TV episode aired, the Huffington Post featured an article showing how the public is realizing that the whole investment game has been rigged.


July 3: LIBOR Scandal Suggests the Whole Game is Rigged



A string of Wall Street crises, including the 2008 stock market crash, the collapse of the mortgage market, the botched Facebook IPO and the scandals at JPMorgan Chase and Barclays have meant “some very heavy body blows experienced by the public,” Richard Grasso, former chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, told CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo on Tuesday.  “It's been a real tough time for consumers who want to get back into the market."

Grasso’s comments followed remarks last week by Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Mary Schapiro that investors have a "concern about the integrity of the marketplace."  Schapiro told a congressional subcommittee that U.S. markets are threatened with "an unwillingness [on the part of investors] to ever engage in the markets again."


Investors are unsure "whether they're getting accurate and honest information" from companies looking to sell stock to the public and uncertain "whether the market structure itself is tilted against the individual investor and in favor the institutional investor," Schapiro said.


A recent survey from financial research and advisory firm Tabb Group reported that 31 percent of investors had "weak" or "very weak" confidence in the stock market, compared with 15 percent in 2010.


“There are some people out there feeling like the game is rigged,” said Frederick. There have been enough events to make them suspicious. I think that’s unfortunate. And the industry needs to continue to make efforts to allay the concerns.”




BARCLAYS BETRAYS THE ROTHSCHILDS,  ie: THE BANK OF ENGLAND


The Bank of England has been controlled by the Rothschild family since the early 1800s, as I revealed in Financial Tyranny. You don't directly see the name "Rothschild" in the super-entity of 147 corporations, but it's hiding in there behind other names.  It was very shocking to see Barclays Bank publicly throw the Rothschilds - ie: the Bank of England - under the bus as the screws turned on them.


July 3: Barclays Claims Bank of England Told Them to Rig Interest Rates



"A memo published by Barclays suggested that Paul Tucker gave a hint to Bob Diamond, the bank’s chief executive, in 2008 that the rate it was claiming to be paying to borrow money from other banks could be lowered. His suggestion followed questions from “senior figures within Whitehall” about why Barclays was having to pay so much interest on its borrowings, the memo states. Barclays and other banks have been accused of artificially manipulating the LIBOR rate, which is used to set the borrowing costs for millions of consumers, businesses and investors, by falsely stating how much they were paying to borrow money.


"The bank claimed yesterday that one of its most senior executives cut the LIBOR rate only at the height of the credit crisis after intervention from the Bank of England.


"The disclosure of the document threatened to plunge one of the biggest high street banks into open war with the country’s central bank, which will soon assume responsibility for regulating Barclays.  In one of the most dramatic days in British corporate history, Mr Diamond resigned yesterday, less than 24 hours after telling staff he was the right man to reform the bank..."




MATT TAIBBI DROPS A BIG ARTICLE ON LIBOR ON JULY 3RD 


On July 3rd the same day he appeared on Current TV Matt Taibbi released a significant article on the LIBOR scandal.  His journalism blends a gut-level realism with exceptional research - and therefore has a way of cutting through the jargon and getting to the core of the issue.


July 3: Why Is Nobody Freaking Out About the LIBOR Scandal?



The LIBOR manipulation story has exploded into a major scandal overseas. The CEO of Barclays, Bob Diamond, has resigned in disgrace; his was the first of what will undoubtedly be many major banks to walk the regulatory plank for fixing the interbank exchange rate.


The Labor party is demanding a sweeping criminal investigation. Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, responded the way a real public official should (i.e. not like Ben Bernanke), blasting the banks:

"It is time to do something about the banking system…  Many people in the banking industry are hardworking and feel badly let down by some of their colleagues and leaders.  It goes to the culture and the structure of banks: the excessive compensation, the shoddy treatment of customers, the deceitful manipulation of a key interest rate, and today, news of yet another mis-selling scandal."


The furor is over revelations that Barclays, the Royal Bank of Scotland, and other banks were monkeying with at least $10 trillion in loans. 

The "Wall Street Journal" is calculating that that LIBOR affects $800 trillion worth of contracts



That is explosive stuff…

The implications of that part of the story should be particularly chilling to Americans, who in recent years have been party to a number of revelations about strange and seemingly inappropriate contacts between senior regulatory officials and big bankers during the heat of the crisis.

We know that American officials in 2008-2009 were extremely concerned about the appearance of weakness in the financial markets, so much so that they may have resisted pursuing criminal prosecutions against big banks, and we also know that they spent a lot of time commiserating with Wall Street figures before and during the crisis.




TAIBBI REVEALS: "IT'S LIKE THE WORLD'S ECONOMY IS BUILT ON QUICKSAND"


As our excerpt continues, you can feel even more of the powerful indignation and shock that is rippling through the global investment community at this time. Even the most skeptical and sarcastic folks in the financial world have been hit in the head with a wooden plank by this scandal:


Anyway, the LIBOR story is leading the front pages of most of Britain’s dailies, it’s on TV, and it’s producing blistering editorials and howls of outrage amongst politicians and activists. But as compadre Yves Smith at "Naked Capitalism" put it, where’s the outrage here in America?  The "New York Times" meanwhile, did chime in with a house editorial yesterday, and it was appropriately somber. And there has been some coverage in the financial press.


But to me what’s missing from all of this is the “Holy F--king S-it!” factor [sic].


This story is so outrageous that it shocks even the most cynical Wall Street observers.

I have a friend who works on Wall Street who for years has been trolling through the stream of financial corruption stories with bemusement, darkly enjoying the spectacle as though the whole post-crisis news arc has been like one long, beautifully-acted, intensely believable sequel to Goodfellas.  But even he is just stunned to the point of near-speechlessness by the LIBOR thing. 

“It’s like finding out that the whole world is on quicksand,” he says.


So as far as the stateside press goes, I’ve got to assume the cavalry is coming soon. But when?





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