Mervyn King tells banks: you can't go on like this

Governor's scathing attack on industry's culture of excess as new scandal erupts

guardian.co.uk, Larry Elliott, Jill Treanor and Nicholas Watt in Brussels, Friday 29 June 2012

Mervyn King, the governor of the Bank of England, says something has
gone 'very wrong' with Britain’s banks that needs to be put right.
Photograph: David Jones/PA

Sir MervynKing, the governor of the Bank of England, has piled the pressure on the scandal-ridden City by saying something has gone "very wrong" with Britain's banks that needed to be put right.

As Barclays and other high street banks became embroiled in a new mis-selling scandal, King launched his most scathing attack yet on the culture of banking in the five-year-long financial crisis.

King refused to say Bob Diamond was a "fit and proper" person to run Barclays as the reputational damage from an interest rate-fixing fine led to another fall in the bank's shares. More than £4bn has been wiped off the value of the bank since the rate-fixing scandal emerged.

"It is time to do something about the banking system," King said. As he warned that the outlook for financial stability had deteriorated as a result of the deepening crisis in the eurozone, he dismissed mounting calls for a Leveson-style investigation into banks, saying that enough was already known to implement root and branch reform of the City.

But Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, said an inquiry was needed. He said: "The governor is right to say that there is a real cultural problem in our banks which these latest scandals expose, and I don't think it is right for government ministers – or for the governor, actually – to say we have had enough inquiries."

King said: "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."

Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland were ordered by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) to pay redress to small business customers after it found "serious failings" in the way they were sold complex financial products intended to protect them from interest rate rises. The revelations caused outrage among business groups, with the Institute of Directors, the British Chambers of Commerce and the CBI all condemning the fleecing of their business members. John Longworth, director general of the BCC, said the latest scandal would "damage business's perception of banks further".

After 72 hours of sustained attack on Diamond, the Barclays boss made it clear he would not voluntarily step down. The bank's chairman, Marcus Agius, is also in the line of fire and may be forced out in an attempt to show that a boardroom executive is paying the price for the record-breaking £290m fine and damage to the bank's reputation. Barclays shareholders are thought to be considering appointing a figurehead to conduct a review of the culture inside the bank.

The political pressure continued to mount on Diamond. Asked whether he was the right man to lead Barclays, the prime minister said: "I can't say that. He has questions to answer."

David Cameron's remarks mirrored those of King and Lord Turner, chairman of the FSA, who both twice declined the opportunity to say that Diamond was "fit and proper" to run Barclays.

Barclays was on Wednesday fined a record £290m for attempting to manipulate crucial interest rates known as the London interbank offered rate (Libor) and the Euro interbank offered rate (Euribor), both of which are crucial in setting the price at which customers borrow for mortgages, between 2005 and 2009.

The fine was published alongside a series of emails showing how traders helped each other to try to manipulate interest rates with promises of champagne and quips like "this is for you, big boy".

Sir Roger Carr, president of employers' body the CBI, said: "The manipulation of the Libor arrangements is deplorable and undermines international trust in the integrity of the City. The weakness must be addressed and the culprits punished."

King said the question of who ran the UK's banks was a question for another day, insisting that the immediate priority was for the government to implement in full the recommendations of the Independent Commission on Banking, headed by Sir John Vickers, which called for firewalls to be set up between the investment and retail arms of banks. He said the cultures of investment and retail banking were different and needed to be separated.

Turner said that there was a "culture of cynicism and greed that is quite shocking". Andrew Bailey, the top banking regulator at the FSA, said the onus was on bank boards to take action. "If, as we now see, there is a fundamental breakdown in trust, the bank boards have to recognise that trust has to be got back and they have to think very hard about how they do that," he said.

The prime minister agreed with King's calls for a cultural change in banking. "We know what's gone wrong and largely we know what needs to be done to put it right. What you are going to see from the government is an incredibly methodical series of actions to deal with all of these problems," he said as he rejected the call by Balls for a Leveson-style inquiry.

"People are shocked by the swaggering arrogance of what we have discovered in the last 24 hours. We really need to open this wide open," said Balls. Knowing he was opening himself up to a political backlash as he was City minister for part of the Labour government's time in office, Balls admitted mistakes had been made.

Lord Oakeshott, the Liberal Democrat peer, said Balls and the former prime minister Gordon Brown would need to be the first two witnesses called to give evidence.

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Ex-Citigroup Executive Gets 8 Years for Embezzlement

Businessweek/Bloomberg, by Christie Smythe on June 29, 2012 

Gary Foster, a former Citigroup Inc. vice president, was arrested June 26 

at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport after returning from\

Bangkok and charged with bank fraud. Photographer: Ed Wray/Bloomberg

Former Citigroup (C) (C) Inc. Vice President Gary Foster was sentenced to 97 months in prison for embezzling almost $23 million from the bank, according to federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York.

Foster pleaded guilty to bank fraud in September, admitting that he transferred money from various Citigroup accounts to his own at JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) (JPM) He concealed his activities by making false accounting entries, according to the government.

Former VP at Citigroup Gary Foster

He used the money to buy real estate and luxury sports cars, including a Ferrari and a Maserati, prosecutors said. The government has seized or restrained property from Foster valued at a total of $14 million.

“I executed a scheme to defraud Citigroup,” Foster told U.S. District Judge Eric Vitaliano at his plea hearing last year in Brooklyn. “I directed funds to be wired into my personal account at JPMorgan.”

Foster, of Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, was arrested last June at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport after returning from Bangkok. Foster, who worked in the bank’s treasury finance department, transferred money from various Citigroup accounts.

Under nonbinding sentencing guidelines, Foster faced a maximum of about 10 years in prison. John Diat, a spokesman for New York-based Citigroup, declined to comment.

Part of Deal

As part of his plea deal, Foster agreed to forfeit about $16 million in properties, including residences in Manhattan, Brooklyn and New Jersey, as well as the Ferrari and Maserati.

“The defendant violated his employer’s trust and stole a stunning amount of money over an extended period of time to finance his personal lifestyle,” U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch in Brooklyn said last year.

Foster, who worked for Citigroup in the Long Island City section of Queens, New York, caused about $900,000 to be moved from its interest-expense account and about $14.4 million from its debt-adjustment account to the bank’s cash account, according to prosecutors.

Then, in eight transfers, his actions led to the money being wired from the cash account into his personal account, prosecutors said. He conducted the fraud from September 2003 to June 2011, according to the government.

Wire Transfers

Foster caused a fraudulent contract or deal number to be put in the reference line of the wire-transfer instructions to make it appear the transfers supported an existing contract, the prosecutors charged.

“I made entries in Citigroup’s records to conceal the fact that I took the funds,” he said at his plea hearing.

Citigroup’s treasury finance department funds loans and other business transactions within the bank and Foster supervised the department’s derivatives unit, according to his criminal complaint. The unit processed payments related to trades of derivatives, including swaps, according to court papers.

Foster joined Citigroup, which is ranked third by assets among U.S. banks, in 1999 and left voluntarily in January 2011, according to a person familiar with his employment.

An internal audit of the department detected the wire transfers to Foster’s personal account, prosecutors said.

“We are outraged by the actions of this former employee,” Shannon Bell, a spokeswoman for Citigroup, said in a June 2011 e-mail.

The case is U.S. v. Foster, 11-cr-00601, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York (Brooklyn).

To contact the reporter on this story: Christie Smythe federal court in Brooklyn, New York, at tweidlich@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Hytha at mhytha@bloomberg.net.

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A Former Wall Street Trader May Have Swallowed A Deadly Pill In Court Before DyingMinutes Later

Brother of Ponzi mastermind Madoff pleads guilty

Deutsche Welle, 29 June 2012

The brother of the man convicted of one of the biggest financial scams in history has pleaded guilty to assisting in the fraud. Peter Madoff forfeited all his assets and faces 10 years in prison.

Peter Madoff pleaded guilty in a New York court on Friday to assisting his brother Bernard Madoff in a Ponzi scheme that cost clients at the brothers' company up to $20 billion (15.8 billion euros).

"I apologize to the people I hurt and to my family," the 66-year-old said in court. He admitted to tax fraud and falsifying documents on his brother's behalf and accepted a 10-year prison sentence.

The hedge fund company was once believed to be the largest in the world. Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison in 2009 when it was revealed he had been ripping off thousands of his clients.

Peter Madoff claimed in court that he did not know about the scam until his brother's arrest.

"Until December 2008 I never suspected that my brother stole from anyone. I was in shock and devastated," he said. "I lost my reputation. My family was torn apart because of my brother."

In addition to spending time in jail, Peter Madoff will surrender his assets.

"Peter Madoff enabled the largest fraud in human history," US Attorney Preet Bharara said. "He will now be jailed well into old age, and he will forfeit virtually every penny he has. We are not yet finished calling to account everyone responsible for the epic fraud of Bernard Madoff and the epic pain of his many victims."

So far, the Madoff brothers have been the only members of the family to face charges in connection with the fraud. But Bernard Madoff's son, Andrew, who was co-director of trading, or Peter's daughter, Shana, who served as the firm's compliance officer, could also face charges.

mz/mkg (Reuters, AFP, AP)

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Merck vaccine fraud exposed by two Merck virologists; company faked mumps vaccine efficacy results for over a decade, says lawsuit

NaturalNews, by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger Editor, June 28, 2012                  

               

(NaturalNews) According to two Merck scientists who filed a False Claims Act complaint in 2010 -- a complaint which has just now been unsealed -- vaccine manufacturer Merck knowingly falsified its mumps vaccine test data, spiked blood samples with animal antibodies, sold a vaccine that actually promoted mumps and measles outbreaks, and ripped off governments and consumers who bought the vaccine thinking it was "95% effective."

See that False Claims Act document at:

www.naturalnews.com/gallery/documents/Merck-False-Claims-Act.pdf

According to Stephen Krahling and Joan Wlochowski, both former Merck virologists, the Merck company engaged in all the following behavior:

• Merck knowingly falsified its mumps vaccine test results to fabricate a "95% efficacy rate."

• In order to do this, Merck spiked the blood test with animal antibodies in order to artificially inflate the appearance of immune system antibodies. As reported in CourthouseNews.com:

Merck also added animal antibodies to blood samples to achieve more favorable test results, though it knew that the human immune system would never produce such antibodies, and that the antibodies created a laboratory testing scenario that "did not in any way correspond to, correlate with, or represent real life ... virus neutralization in vaccinated people," according to the complaint. (http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/06/27/47851.htm)

• Merck then used the falsified trial results to swindle the U.S. government out of "hundreds of millions of dollars for a vaccine that does not provide adequate immunization."

• Merck's vaccine fraud has actually contributed to the continuation of mumps across America, causing more children to become infected with mumps. (Gee, really? This is what NaturalNews has been reporting for years... vaccines are actually formulated to keep the outbreaks going because it's great for repeat business!)

• Merck used its false claims of "95 percent effectiveness" to monopolize the vaccine market and eliminate possible competitors.

• The Merck vaccine fraud has been going on since the late 1990's, say the Merck virologists.

• Testing of Merck's vaccine was never done against "real-world" mumps viruses in the wild. Instead, test results were simply falsified to achieve the desired outcome.

• This entire fraud took place "with the knowledge, authority and approval of Merck's senior management."

• Merck scientists "witnessed firsthand the improper testing and data falsification in which Merck engaged to artificially inflate the vaccine's efficacy findings," according to court documents (see below).

US government chose to ignore the 2010 False Claims Act!

Rather than taking action on this false claims act, the U.S. government simply ignored it, thereby protecting Merck's market monopoly instead of properly serving justice. This demonstrates the conspiracy of fraud between the U.S. government, FDA regulators and the vaccine industry.

Chatom Primary Care sues Merck for Sherman Act monopolization, breach of warranty, violation of consumer protection laws

Following the unsealing of this 2010 False Claims Act, Chatom Primary Care, based in Alabama, smelled something rotten. Three days ago, Chatom filed a lawsuit against Merck. That lawsuit record is available here:

www.naturalnews.com/gallery/documents/Chatom-Lawsuit-Merck-Mumps.pdf

It alleges, among other shocking things:

[Merck engaged in] ...a decade-long scheme to falsify and misrepresent the true efficacy of its vaccine.

Merck fraudulently represented and continues to falsely represent in its labeling and elsewhere that its Mumps Vaccine has an efficacy rate of 95 percent of higher.

In reality, Merck knows and has taken affirmative steps to conceal -- by using improper testing techniques and falsifying test data -- that its Mumps Vaccine is, and has been since at least 1999, far less than 95 percent effective.

Merck designed a testing methodology that evaluated its vaccine against a less virulent strain of the mumps virus. After the results failed to yield Merck's desired efficacy, Merck abandoned the methodology and concealed the study's findings.

...incorporating the use of animal antibodies to artificially inflate the results...

...destroying evidence of the falsified data and then lying to an FDA investigator...

...threatened a virologist in Merck's vaccine division with jail if he reported the fraud to the FDA...

...the ultimate victims here are the millions of children who every year are being injected with a mumps vaccine that is not providing them with an adequate level of protection. And while this is a disease that, according to the Centers for Disease Control ('CDC'), was supposed to be eradicated by now, the failure in Merck's vaccine has allowed this disease to linger, with significant outbreaks continuing to occur.

Chatom Primary Care also alleges that the fraudulent Merck vaccine contributed to the 2006 mumps outbreak in the Midwest, and a 2009 outbreak elsewhere. It says, "there has remained a significant risk of a resurgence of mumps outbreaks..."

This investigation is only beginning

NaturalNews has only begun to investigate this incredible breaking news about Merck and the vaccine industry. We are pouring through the court documents to identify additional information that may be relevant to this case, and we plan to bring you that information soon.

For the record, Merck denies all allegations. Is anyone surprised?

Sources for this article:

NaturalNews wishes to thank CourthouseNews.com for its coverage of this story. Original article at: http://www.courthousenews.com/2012/06/27/47851.htm

Chatom Lawsuit against Merck

www.naturalnews.com/gallery/documents/Chatom-Lawsuit-Merck-Mumps.pdf

2010 False Claims Act against Merck, by two Merck virologists

www.naturalnews.com/gallery/documents/Merck-False-Claims-Act.pdf

Announcement of the lawsuit in the media:

http://www.nasdaq.com/article/lawsuit-claims-merck-overstated-mumps-vaccine-effectiveness-20120622-00532

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"The Recalibration of Dark & Light" – Feb 25, 2012 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Big pharma [the drug companies of America] are going to have to change very soon or collapse. When you have an industry that keeps people sick for money, it cannot survive in the new consciousness., Global Unity, ... etc.) - (Text version) 

"The Recalibration of Awareness – Apr 20/21, 2012 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll)(Subjects: Old Energy, Recalibration Lectures, God / Creator, Religions/Spiritual systems (Catholic Church, Priests/Nun’s, Worship, John Paul Pope, Women in the Church otherwise church will go, Current Pope won’t do it), Middle East, Jews, Governments will change (Internet, Media, Democracies, Dictators, North Korea, Nations voted at once), Integrity (Businesses, Tobacco Companies, Bankers/ Financial Institutes, Pharmaceutical company to collapse), Illuminati (Based in Greece, Shipping, Financial markets, Stock markets, Pharmaceutical money (fund to build Africa to develop)), Shift of Human Consciousness, (Old) Souls, Women, Masters to/already come back, Global Unity.... etc.)


"The Recalibration of the Perception of the Future"– Jun 23, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - New

What We Can Learn From Iceland

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Channel:  Wanderer of the Skies - April 14, 2012

“… Your nation of Iceland is being used as a testing ground for the rolling out of financial strategies for the betterment of your planet. It would be wise to follow their progress in this respect, as it will be the fate of all nations in a very brief period of time. We have always advised you that such an action would never come from the larger powers and nations of the world, but they will follow in lockstep once the actions begin their domino effect…..” 

Supreme Court upholds Obama health reforms

Jakarta Globe, June 28, 2012 

Demonstrators gather outside
the US Supreme Court

The US Supreme Court Thursday upheld historic health care reforms but changed some of the key provisions, in a major election-year victory for Democratic President Barack Obama.

The nation's top justices ruled that a key plank of Obama's domestic policy to extend health insurance to some 32 million Americans was constitutional, but imposed some limitations on extending aid to the nation's poorest.

AFP

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US media hooked on eurozone crisis

Deutsche Welle, 28 June 2012

Examining US media reports on Europe’s economic crisis for DW's Transatlantic Voices column, Julian Jaursch argues that today's coverage has to be viewed in the context of the previous global economic downturn.

Julian Jaursch is a freelance journalist based in Berlin. He holds an MA in Political Science/TransAtlantic Studies from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Why for Zeus' sake does the American media even care so much? It is Greece, after all: A country with an economy roughly the size of Washington's and about as diverse and interesting as Idaho's. A country with an economic output 50 times smaller than that of the US. A country that prior to the global economic crisis was virtually non-existent in American economic news.

Since then, papers and TV shows have been full of Greece. The New York Times ran articles on the country's financial situation as early as 2008, the Wall Street Journal has been covering every bailout since then, NPR tried to explain what happens if Greece defaults and CBS recently aired a piece on how the European debt crisis sent the Dow Jones plummeting. Even Stephen Colbert, the outspokenly patriotic and US-centered TV character whose international coverage is called "Un-American News," took on the Greek debt crisis. Discussing the dismal situation of Greece's economy in May 2010, he joked that the Greeks had laid off the oracle of Delphi and that she had never seen it coming.

Cause and effect

The examples give some of the reasons for the strong media interest. Precisely because of the global economic downturn, the news media cares. The crisis has shown quite plainly that the economies around the world are interconnected. What happens in one country has repercussions for citizens in many others, for instance via fluctuations on the stock markets or effects on the banking sector. Moreover, it is not just Greece that is making headlines today: Because Spain, Portugal and the rest of the eurozone are struggling as well, the effects are even bigger.

According to news value theories, events gain a certain news value if they have some intrinsic characteristics. Europe's economic woes did just that for the US: While the continent is geographically not very close to the US, it is still intimately connected to the US for historic, political and economic reasons (news factor proximity) and its troubles are bad news (negativity) that in some way affect the US economy (relevance). Add to that the already heightened sensitivity to economic topics due to the global financial crisis (established topic) and it becomes clear why US media and its recipients paid so much attention to Europe. Egotistical, yet genuine, concern about the US economy might have led to the increased coverage.

Playing the blame game

But is it really just that? Or could the coverage also try to mask the US' own economic weaknesses? After all, US reporting, especially some opinion pieces in print and television media, has been quite harsh. There was talk of European "grandiosity" and the "fiction" of the European economic model. European pension systems were closely scrutinized along with the continent's demographic problems. The very values and work ethic of Greeks, Spaniards or Portuguese were questioned. A "Eurosocialist" system that instituted a single currency, but no fiscal union was lamented. Generally, Europe's debt problems and the inherent issues of the euro system were pointed out, repeatedly and vigorously, along with some well-meant pieces of advice from afar. 

Julian Jaursch

Such foreign reporting comes at a time when America's own economy is not exactly doing well, either. Memories of bank and auto bail-outs are still fresh in people's minds, the unemployment rate is at roughly eight percent (eurozone: 11 percent), the economy is only growing moderately and, most importantly, the country's debt-to-GDP ratio is much higher than the EU's, according to Eurostat and the IMF. Still, President Barack Obama has not grown tired of referring to Europe's struggles when talking about the reasons for the slow recovery in the US.

Focusing on the eurozone's failures certainly leaves less time to discuss the US' own debt problems, social security systems or demographic development. It also leaves less time to investigate whether downgrades by American rating agencies - or mere threats thereof - were always justified. Moreover, the fact that an American bank helped obscure Greece's sovereign debt issues in the first place is but a footnote today.

Europe on their mind

Yet, despite American media's intense coverage of Europe's economic misery, there is no distraction campaign to conceal domestic economic problems. Surely, on a political level, Obama will continue to subtly blame the eurozone's struggles for some of America's own hardships. It might even be a standard item of his reelection campaign strategy - anything to take the wind out of the Republicans' sails who say that Obama alone messed up the economy.

Two circumstances lead to the conclusion, however, that coverage is driven by concern rather than by efforts to mask US problems: One regarding the quantity of reporting, the other regarding the quality.

If the American media reported from Europe as a distraction, this would require very little coverage of the US economy and its problems. This is not the case - quite the contrary. Reports about the jobless numbers, poverty rates, the debt ceiling, gas prices or the stock market abound not only in financial news outlets. Therefore, the fact alone that there is a lot of coverage on Europe's problems does not mean that the US media ignores domestic issues. Still, a closer look at America's own pension system or demographic development could not hurt, either.

Concerning the quality of reporting, those stereotypical and hyperbolic, sometimes even flat-out wrong, articles on the European economy are offset by a much larger number of rather dry economic coverage. For the most part, reports try to make sense of what is happening, explain economic jargon or introduce the American audience to those affected across the pond. It is remarkable here that economic journalism might become much more widely consumed because of the crisis. Similarly noteworthy is the fact that US media cannot get around including EU actors in their reporting anymore. Before the crisis, the Union was mostly shunned in US media due to its complex and seemingly distant and dull nature.

It's the economy, stupid

The global financial crisis, which began and played out largely in the US, has arguably intensified the American public's awareness of economic topics. From bailouts to financial reforms, people around the nation were affected by that downturn. So if the collapse of a single investment bank can be the start of a downward spiral for the US economy, what will happen if an entire currency area collapses? Such economic concerns rank highest among Americans' worries and what worries the people, worries the papers.

Editor: Rob Mudge

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Matthew message (Channelled by Suzanne Ward, Jan 19, 2012)

“…. The coffers of the United States, which is erroneously considered the most fiscally sound nation in the world, have been empty for some time. The national debt, in large part due to the skullduggery of the Illuminati-owned Federal Reserve System and its IRS collection agency, will become manageable when that System is dissolved.  The various currencies, especially dollars, have no foundation—daily transactions involving billions of dollars and other currencies are merely information passed from one computer to another and they far exceed the money to back them.  The “new” foundation for currencies will be a return to an old one, where precious metals was a set standard for exchange, and “old fashioned” bartering once again will be an excellent way for nations and communities to conduct some business. ….”


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Court: Bernard Madoff's brother to plead guilty

Associated Press, by Larry Neumeister, Jun 27, 2012 

NEW YORK (AP) -- The brother of Ponzi scheme king Bernard Madoff (MAY'-dawf) is scheduled to plead guilty in New York in the criminal case resulting from the multibillion-dollar fraud.

Peter Madoff

Peter Madoff is the former chief compliance officer at the private investment arm of Bernard Madoff's business.

Court papers signed by a federal judge in Manhattan on Wednesday show Peter Madoff will plead guilty. Madoff also agreed to the criminal forfeiture of $143.1 billion, including all of his real and personal property.

Madoff agrees to serve 10 years in prison.

The court papers say he'll plead guilty to conspiracy to commit securities fraud and other offenses including falsifying records.

His attorney hasn't returned an email seeking comment.

Bernard Madoff pleaded guilty to fraud and is locked up in prison in Butner, N.C.

Barclays chief Bob Diamond gives up 2012 bonus over £290m fine

Top executives forgo bonuses after bank fined £290m for 'serious, widespread' role in manipulating crucial interest rates

guardian.co.uk, Jill Treanor, City editor, Wednesday 27 June 2012

Bob Diamond has pledged to make Barclays a better corporate
citizen. Photograph: Nick Potts/PA

Barclays has been slapped with total fines of £290m for its "serious, widespread" role in manipulating the price of crucial interest rates in a move that has forced chief executive Bob Diamond and other top executives to forgo any bonuses for 2012.

The £59.5m fine from the Financial Services Authority is the largest penalty ever levied by the City regulator, which found that Barclays contravened its rules for a number of years and involved "a significant number of employees".

The other penalties paid by Barclays are to settle with the US authorities, the department of justice ($200m) and the Commodities Futures and Trading Commission ($160m), as part of an industry wide probe into the way that interest rates traded between banks were set.

The investigation covered the London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) and the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor) both of which play a critical role in setting the rates of interest that households and major companies pay to borrow.

Libor is used as a benchmark for setting financial contracts and interest rates around the world and is overseen by the British Bankers' Association. The BBA is conducting its own review which will be published later on Wednesday. Banks are asked which rate they think they will be able to borrow from each other for periods of time ranging from overnight to 12 months in currencies including sterling, dollars, euros, yen and Swiss francs.

The FSA found that Barclays had been making submissions to the process that were intended to allow the bank to make profits through its traders speculating on interest rates and reduced the price it submitted during the financial crisis because of management concerns over negative media comment. The FSA said that Barclays' top management was concerned that the higher prices it was saying it expected to borrow at were making it appear that it had liquidity during the crisis – and so the bank ended up submitting lower prices than it would otherwise have done.

The FSA made a damning criticism of Barclays and warned other banks that more cases were to come. Tracey McDermott, acting director of enforcement and financial crime, said the misconduct was "serious, widespread and extended over a number of years".

"Making submissions to try to benefit trading positions is wholly unacceptable. This was possible because Barclays failed to ensure it had proper controls in place. Barclays' behaviour threatened the integrity of the rates with the risk of serious harm to other market participants," said McDermott.

"The FSA continues to pursue a number of other significant cross-border investigations in this area and the action we have taken against Barclays should leave firms in no doubt about the serious consequences of this type of failure."

Diamond, who has been pledging to make Barclays a better corporate citizen, is giving up his bonus for 2012 as a result.

"The events which gave rise to today's resolutions relate to past actions which fell well short of the standards to which Barclays aspires in the conduct of its business. When we identified those issues, we took prompt action to fix them and co-operated extensively and proactively with the authorities," Diamond said.

"Nothing is more important to me than having a strong culture at Barclays; I am sorry that some people acted in a manner not consistent with our culture and values."

The boss of Barclays Capital (the investment banking arm) Rich Ricci; the chief operating offer Jerry del Missier and finance director Chris Lucas are giving up their bonuses too.

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Pentagon holds gay pride event

Associated Press, by Pauline Jenilek, Jun. 26, 2012

WASHINGTON (AP) — In the course of a year, Marine Capt. M. Matthew Phelps says he went from being a gay man "in the closet," afraid of being discharged, to invitee at the White House gay pride reception, drinking champagne with his commander in chief.

Matthew Phelps (Photo by

Chris Henscheid)

Phelps told his story Tuesday at the Pentagon's first-ever event to recognize the service of gay and lesbian troops. The historic event came nine months after repeal of the 18-year-old "don't ask don't tell" policy that had prohibited gay troops from serving openly and forced more than 13,500 service members out of the armed forces.

"Last June ... I was at a point in my career that if anyone had found out that I was gay ... I could have lost my job," Phelps told some 400 uniformed and civilian Defense Department employees packed into a Pentagon auditorium.

"A year later ... I, Capt. Matthew Phelps, was invited to attend this pride reception at the White House," Phelps said of the June 15 reception hosted by President Barack Obama. "And I thought how amazing is it over the course of a year, I could go from being fired for being who I am, to having champagne with the commander in chief — on cocktail napkins with the presidential seal on it."

Phelps appeared on a panel of current and former service members, some of whom told of their experiences before the repeal of "don't ask don't tell" and how life is different now. The audience filled the seats and dozens more stood along the walls, roughly 1 in 5 were in uniform and the rest civilians who had not been subject to the old policy.

"For those service members who are gay and lesbian, we lifted a real and personal burden from their shoulders," top Pentagon lawyer Jeh Johnson said in a speech opening the event that lasted about an hour and a half. "They no longer have to live a lie in the military" or "teach a child to lie to protect her father's career."

Before the repeal, gay troops could serve but could be discharged if they revealed their sexual orientation. At the same time, a commanding officer was prohibited from asking a service member whether he or she was gay.

"For all of us, we should honor the professional and near-flawless manner in which our entire U.S. military implemented and adapted to this change," Johnson said of the months since repeal.

Although some had feared repeal would cause problems in the ranks, officials and gay advocacy groups say there have been a few isolated incidents but no big issues — aside from what advocacy groups criticize as slow implementation of some changes, such as benefit entitlements to troops in same-sex marriages.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said last month that military leaders had concluded that repeal had not affected morale or readiness. A report to Panetta with assessments from the individual military service branches said that as of May 1 they had seen no ill effects.

An argument against open service for years had been that acknowledging the presence of gays would hurt unit cohesion, which is military talk for the sense of being part of a team that works well together.

Phelps argued Tuesday that repeal did just the opposite — improved unit cohesion. He said that hit home for him during a 2007 deployment to Iraq.

"Every Saturday night, the officers used to get together and smoke cigars and watch movies," he said. "Of course, their thoughts would all drift to home and everyone would talk about their families and their wives and the letters that they got from their kids — and I sat the in the back of the room not talking to anybody.

"Not only was it so hard to have left somebody at home ... but when everybody was getting together and growing closer as a unit, by virtue of the fact that I wasn't allowed to say anything, I was actually growing more distant from my unit," said Phelps, who now serves at the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego.

After repeal, he said, unit cohesion improved.

Phelps drew long laughter when he told of the day "don't ask don't tell" ended last fall.

"I went to work on the 20th of September, thinking my life was going to change. I sat down at my desk and I kind of braced myself on the desk, waiting for everyone to come and ask me if I was gay," he said. "And believe it or not, nobody did."

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Rio+20: Lord Monckton Breaks Down the Rio Conference

Published on Jun 23, 2012 

Lord Christopher Monckton, chief policy advisor to the Science and Public Policy Institute and former science advisor to Margaret Thatcher, tells The New American from Rio that the just-concluded Rio+20 conference was not about saving the planet or eradicating poverty, but about shackling the plant under global government. He also optimistically stresses that the "pointy heads here in Rio" have failed despite their declaration of success and that "the game is up." Video produced by http://www.libertynewsnetwork.tv

Occupy author examines archeology of debt

Deutsche Welle, 25 June 2012

Few books have provoked the kind of media hype, discussion and praise as David Graeber's "'Debt: The Last 5,000 Years" has in the past few weeks. DW looks at the movement and the man behind the book.

He doesn't stay in one place for long. One minute David Graeber is in London, where he teaches at anthropology at Goldsmith College, the next he's in Frankfurt at Blockupy, then in Cologne and Berlin for book releases, next stop New York. It's no wonder that Graeber is so busy: He's published three books in 40 days.

The best-known of the three, "Debt: The First 5,000 Years," was described by journalist and political talk show host Maybritt Illner and culture presenter Dieter Moor as "perhaps the most important book of the year." With the three publications, the man whose slogan is "We are the 99 percent" - now deeply ingrained in the system-critical Occupy movement - has managed to attract more attention than any of his fellow-campaigners before him.

He's an activist, anarchist and anthropologist who appears in all the most influential feuilletons. But what does Graeber have to say for himself?

Chronicling the history of debt 

"Debt: The Last 5,000 Years" is a
 radical look at the roots of the current
economic crisis

In 400 pages, Graeber chronicles the history of debt and, with that, the history of humanity. He begins the book with a slick, but provocative sentence: "Debt doesn't have to be repaid."

He then goes on to describe the economic systems of various indigenous groups and the invention of coinage, finally landing in the present. The assumption that barter trade was initially in existence before it was simplified with the introduction of coinage and later the credit system is, he concludes, idiocy.

Credit systems were in existence long before the invention of money. People who live together in a community are constantly lending things and helping each another, so everyone owes a debt in one way or another. But these debts have nothing to do with money, argues Graeber.

Graeber shows that debt has a moral dimension. He finds it remarkable that the moral imperative that debt must be repaid is now considered more important than other moral and ethical obligations. Why else could it be that governments in poor countries prioritize debt repayments over the basic nutritional requirement of their citizens? Debt, says Graeber, is a moral principle merely enforcing the power of the ruling classes, leading to the repression of the masses.

This system can't function forever. When too many people are in debt, uprisings and revolutions occur. The solution? Debt cancellation, says Graeber.

Success story 

FAZ editor Frank Schirrmacher described
Graeber's book as a "revelation"

This demand is in keeping with Graeber's style, having in the past represented a number of radical positions. He has no allegiance to any political party, calls himself an anarchist, is a member of the union Industrial Workers of the World and has researched power and the meaning of history and slavery in Madagascar. Graeber taught at Yale until 2007 when his contract was controversially not renewed. Critics believe the decision was politically motivated.

The 51-year-old American has secured himself a place on the bestseller list of Germany's prominent news magazine Der Spiegel, reaching fourth place last month. The success story of the book began in fall 2011 with the English edition. The editor of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Frank Schirrmacher, wrote that the book was "a revelation because the author has shown that one is no longer obliged to react in the system of apparent economic rationality." This review made Graeber's risqué theses socially acceptable.

But the media hype really began when the German translation of the book was published in May, in conjunction with the release of Graeber's "Inside Occupy," a monograph about the Occupy movement. The book reveals much about Graeber's political background: He was involved in the Occupy protests as an organizer and follower right from the start, while simultaneously analyzing, promoting and shaping the movement.

All of the major German newspapers were talking about Graeber - Süddeutsche Zeitung, TAZ, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Die Welt, Der Spiegel and Stern to name just a few. Most critiques of the book were benevolent. Graeber's theories were described as brilliant, illuminating, exciting. Graeber translated between worlds, between critics and supporters of the system, between academics and the media. He presented his complex theories in bite-size, easy to understand sections. He interrupts analyses to build strands of thought, while still remaining entertaining.

Playing by the rules 

The media have called Graeber the
"brains" behind the Occupy
movement

But it's not just the content of the book. It's Graeber, the person. The idea of the "99 percent" in the slogan "We are the 99 percent" comes from him. And even though he himself is one of the 99 percent, he knows the language of the one percent. He also knows the unwritten rules of getting heard in public.

On Maybritt Ilmer's talk show, Graeber was smartly dressed in a black suit-jacket. It was his 67th interview with the German press. Still, he remained polite, succinct and never looked bored. As radical as his thinking may be, his appearances are always in keeping with convention. He's well aware of how much conformity is necessary to inspire interest in non-conformist thinking. He's no madcap revolutionary; rather, he fits into the protocol of primt-time programming.

Above all, he's a figurehead for the so-called 99 percent. The media have bestowed a range of attributes upon him, from "mentor" to "brains" behind the Occupy movement, but also the moniker "intellectual superstar."

Reading his "Inside Occupy," one thing is clear: The last thing that Occupy wants is a leader. "Direct Action," basic democracy and no hierarchy are central to the movement. But Graeber is already easily available for the media. Just as he explains the history of debt, he can also easily formulate what Occupy is all about. Slogans such as "We explain why the system doesn't work" are more likely to be taken seriously when they come from the mouth of a Yale professor than from a 20-year-old with a hoodie and dreadlocks.

In the meantime, the media hype has trailed off, the financial system in still in place, and the reluctance to cancel debt hasn't changed. The revolution hasn't happened yet. Will it take another 5,000 years to rethink the financial system?

Author: Ruth Krause / hw

Editor: Kate Bowen