Matt Taibbi: LIBOR Rate-Fixing Scandal "Biggest Insider Trading You Could Ever Imagine"

Democracy Now
Rolling Stone’s Matt Taibbi joins us to discuss the pattern of systemic corruption by 16 banks accused of rigging a key global interest rate used in contracts worth trillions of dollars. The London Interbank Offered Rate — known as LIBOR — is the average interest rate at which banks can borrow from each other; some analysts say it defines the cost of money.

Barclays was recently fined $453 million for rigging LIBOR, and a number of other banks are under investigation. "Ordinary people actually suffered when LIBOR was manipulated downward, mainly because local governments tended to lose money," Taibbi says. "Even the tiniest manipulation downward when you’re talking about a thing of this scale would result in tens of trillions of dollars of losses. ...

The banks weren’t doing this just to make themselves look healthier, they were also doing this just to make money. They were trading against this information in what essentially was the biggest kind of insider trading you could possibly imagine." Taibbi is author of the book, "Griftopia: A Story of Bankers, Politicians, and the Most Audacious Power Grab in American History." [Transcript to come. Check back soon.]

Accidentally Released Documents Show How Goldman Engaged in 'Naked Short Selling'

It doesn't happen often, but sometimes God smiles on us. Last week he smiled on investigative reporters everywhere, when the lawyers for Goldman, Sachs slipped on one whopper of a legal banana peel, inadvertently delivering some of the bank's darker secrets into the hands of the public.

The lawyers for Goldman and Bank of America/Merrill Lynch have been involved in a legal battle for some time -- primarily with the retail giant Overstock.com, but also with Rolling Stone, the Economist, Bloomberg, and the New York Times. The banks have been fighting us to keep sealed certain documents that surfaced in the discovery process of an ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit filed by Overstock against the banks.

Last week, in response to an Overstock.com motion to unseal certain documents, the banks' lawyers, apparently accidentally, filed an unredacted version of Overstock's motion as an exhibit in their declaration of opposition to that motion. In doing so, they inadvertently entered into the public record a sort of greatest-hits selection of the very material they've been fighting for years to keep sealed. More...

Massive manipulation by Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns

Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi's new investigation suggests massive manipulation by Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns. Did someone bet on Bear Stearns' fall? Who was involved? Was there insider trading? A $1.7 million options bet was placed...and paid off. Nothing's been done about it by the SEC. If you're interested in how Wall Street plays this game, watch this.