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Oh shit! I think the dominoes already started falling! We could be watching a HUGE scandal accompanying total global financial collapse. But really, when you think of it, why wouldn't there be a HUGE scandal accompanying said global financial collapse? Zero Hedge:
Paul Tucker, the Bank of England executive at the center of the Barclays/Diamond trigger-conversation, has issued a statement requesting a Treasury hearing to show his "keenness to clarify the position with regard to the events" of that hanging chad of a phone-call. What is most troublesome (for every major banker and politician) is his apparent willingness to take more down with him. As the M.A.D. escalates, MNI reports that minutes from 2007 show Tucker (who was/is in line as we noted yesterday for the top-job once King leaves next year) was fully aware from the early days of the financial crisis that market participants believed Libor was rigged. The Group’s November 2007 minutes, from a Tucker-chaired meeting, state “Several group members thought that Libor fixings had been lower than actual traded interbank rates through the period of stress.” The minutes show that not only was the issue raised back in November 2007 but that the BOE went to great lengths as the crisis deepened the following year to keep its finger on the money markets’ pulse. It seems that instead of mounting the 'plead-da-fif' defense Tucker is coming all-guns-blazing and is willing to drag more names into this miasma as a suicide-bomb of a hearing where the truth is realized could well bring every high ranking banking official to admit the continued unreality of Libor rates.
If this scandal blows up this week, financial news network viewers will see some epic freakouts: Some meltdowns will be from guests, others will be from on-air personalities. Maybe not, though. This might not be the actual chaos trigger. That might happen a few weeks or months still down the road. But whenever it does, when LIBOR and Derivatives actually collapse, you will know. You won't help but know!
The first derivatives domino is rocking back and forth. Can Barclay's "stabilize"(sweep under the rug/publicly ignore) the situation before events get out of hand? Reuters. Excerpts:
Pressure grew on Barclays Plc Chief Executive Bob Diamond to quit as Britain launched an inquiry on Monday into a market-rigging scandal, saying a "culture that flourished in the age of irresponsibility" among bankers had to end.
Barclays Chairman Marcus Agius resigned on Monday, saying "the buck stops with me" as the scandal over manipulating Libor interest rates claimed its first major scalp.
But his departure did not take the heat off Diamond, who ran Barclays' investment banking arm when the rate rigging took place, drawing a record fine for the lender last week in a scandal likely to involve many more banks.
"The buck in Barclays stops with Bob Diamond, and it is Bob Diamond who must accept responsibility," said John Mann, an opposition Labor member of a parliamentary committee that later this week will question Agius and Diamond.
"He must resign. He's got to go," Mann told Sky News.
Anger with the culture of bankers in London, a world financial capital and major part of the British economy, crossed the political divide with Conservative finance minister George Osborne outlining the parliamentary inquiry.
"The behavior of some in the financial services has damaged the reputation of an industry that employs hundreds of thousands of people and is vital to the economic prosperity of the country," Osborne told parliament. "It's time to deal with the culture that flourished in the age of irresponsibility and hold those who allowed it to do so to account."
Barclays has admitted that some of its traders tried to manipulate the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor), which is used worldwide as a benchmark for prices on about $350 trillion of derivatives and other financial products across a range of currencies and loan durations.
Well, gosh! I ain't never heard of no derivatives! They really couldn't kill the global economy, could they? Yes. Yes they could..
This is what will kill our economy. Global economy. So we've got that going for us.. The Extinction Protocol. Excerpts:
..
Gross Credit Exposure has returned to 2008 levels, something the world might want to pay attention to. Once the lessons of the mistakes of the past are ignored, the risk factor increases proportionally and with Europe teetering on the edge of a Lehman event, the increase in interest rate derivatives might well indicate a new risk that has not been accounted for: A sudden collapse of the Euro currency below the 1.20 or even parity level. Such an event would make Lehman look like a picnic but there is more bad news beyond that as it is not just interest rate derivatives that have increased past 2008 levels as the chart above demonstrates, but some idiots placed bets on the currency markets which means that a collapse of the Euro creates an irreversible game of dominoes and destruction: Unfortunately for us common folk, no one has taken the time to explain the implications of a 10, 20, or even 30% decline in the value of the Euro versus the US Dollar in a compressed time period.
Credit goes where credit is due.. Lifetime Achievement Award!
Two from Zero Hedge:
It's Official: US Debt-To-GDP Passes 100% Excerpts:
With precisely one year left for the world and all of its inhabitants, at least according to the Mayans, not to mention on the day of the Winter Solstice, it is only fitting that US debt, net of all settlements for all already completed bond auctions, is now at precisely $15,182,756,264,288.80. Why is this relevant? Because the latest annualized US GDP, according to the BEA, was $15,180,900,000.00. Which means that, as of today, total US debt to GDP is 100.012%. Congratulations America: you are now in the triple digit "debt to GDP" club!
Mark Faber: "I Am Convinced The Whole Derivatives Market Will Cease To Exist And Will Go To Zero" Excerpts:
"I am convinced the whole derivatives market will cease to exit. Will become zero. And when it happens I don't know: you can postpone the problems with monetary measures for a long time but you can't solve them... Greece should have defaulted - it would have sent a message that not all derivatives are equal because it depends on the counterparty." And on the long-term future: "I am ultra bearish. I think most people will be lucky if they still have 50% of their money in 5 years time.."
Bárðarbunga: more seismic unrest at another one of Iceland’s large volcanoes The Extinction Protocol. Excerpts:
During the night there was an small earthquake swarm in Bárðarbunga volcano. The largest earthquake in this earthquake swarm was ML 3.04 in magnitude. It had the depth of 8.5 km. This might have been a dike intrusion. But it is hard to know that for sure at the moment. This earthquake swarm only lasted for an about 2 to 3 hours before it stopped.
..There are signs that magma is rising at great depth underneath the Bardarbunga volcanic centre.
Historic! HIV Vaccine Approved for Human Clinical Trials Unicorn Booty. Excerpts:
The vaccine, developed by researchers at the University of Western Ontario, has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to start being tested in humans in January.
It is the first preventive HIV vaccine approved for clinical trials to use a whole HIV-1 virus, which has been both killed and genetically engineered, to activate immunity. In this way, the new vaccine is much like the killed whole virus vaccines that are successful against polio, rabies and influenza.
Gingrich: I’ll ‘ignore’ any Supreme Court ruling I disagree with What a wonderful "democratic thinker!" Idiot. The Raw Story. Excerpts:
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is doubling down from Thursday’s Fox News debate on his vow to abolish federal courts if he disagreed with their decision.
According to The Hill, in a conference call with reporters, Gingrich indicated that it was in the president’s power as commander-in-chief to deem any Supreme Court ruling irrelevant if he or she in the White House disagreed.
The former House Speaker used the Supreme Court’s ruling against the Bush administration exceeding its constitutional authority in handling suspected terrorist detainees at Guantanamo Bay in 2008 as a basis for his extreme view.
“They just ignored it,” he said. “A commander-in-chief could simply issue instructions to ignore it, and say it’s null and void and I do not accept it because it infringes on my duties as commander-in-chief to protect the country.”
I love that Romney and Ron Paul are beating the shit out of this douchebag with negative, but all too true attack ads. I've been waiting a loooong time to see Herr Gingrich(pronounced "Gin-greck") drown in the political cesspool of his own creation! Merry Christmas to all!
“The FBI Estimates That 80 Percent Of All Mortgage Fraud Involves Collaboration Or Collusion By Industry Insiders” Washington's Blog. Excerpts:
Fraud By The Big Banks – More Than Anything Done By The Little Guy – Caused The Financial Crisis
The U.S. Treasury’s Office of Thrift Supervision noted last year (page 7):
The FBI estimates that 80 percent of all mortgage fraud involves collaboration
or collusion by industry insiders.
This confirms what one of the country’s top fraud experts has said for years: that it was fraud by the big banks – more than anything done by the little guy – which caused the financial crisis:
Breaking News: Programmer of Fukushima confesses “Fukushima had a cyber attack” Under-reported, huh? Fukushima Diary. Excerpts:
A computer engineer found out operating system of Fukushima plants have been attacked and those attacks were mostly from / via Russia. This engineer is counted as one of the members of Fukushima 50.
..
Because the system was shut down after black out they could not operate the systems to control the pressure, water injecting, radiation shield etc. and that had to be done by him.
He managed to reboot the system and restart it in manual mode but he encountered series of troubles such as password entry screen did not come out or his password entering was disturbed by compute bug. He sorted it out by formatting the system but it was obvious that someone sent virus to the system.
He tried to send virus backward and it reached to Russia. Someone sent virus from or via Russia.
Every crazy CIA plot you’ve heard of originated with one man IO9. Excerpts:
There are stories that have come to light, over the years, that make the Central Intelligence Agency look like a collection of Looney Tunes shorts. The violence, the slapstick, and the over-the-top ridiculousness of the experiments that have been conducted over the years boggle the mind. They came from the (slightly-boggled) mind of one man: Sidney Gottlieb.
Medical Marijuana Laws Shown to Reduce Traffic Fatalities Popular Science. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Marijuana; Is there anything it can't do? Excerpts:
..A new study out of University of Colorado Denver and Montana State University shows that legalizing medical marijuana sales in various states over the past two decades has led to a nearly 10 percent drop in traffic fatalities. What the study really shows--by way of causal chain--is a five percent drop in beer sales, and that has in turn led to fewer fatalities on the road. Put that in your pipe and smoke it (couldn’t resist just one).
Happy holidays, and enjoy this randomly sampled information!
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