Taibbi and Spitzer on LIBOR: The business model of the banks "is corrupt and rotten to its core"

A nice three-way discussion between Eliot Spitzer (who's met corruption face to face), Matt Taibbi (who writes about it almost daily), and Dennis Kelleher (who has represented banks for a living).

As Kelleher says at 2:10 in the clip below:

Their business model ... is based on making as much money, as quickly as possible, in any way that they can not get caught (emphasis his).

Remember, Kelleher knows these guys inside-out — as Spitzer notes, he has a history as a banking industry lawyer.

This is a guy who knows these guys. He later (8:10) calls them "not banks" but "finance and trading companies."

Great discussion. Watch:



Taibbi notes (4:30), because the BBA throws out the eight outliers in the 16 daily quotes, for LIBOR to be constantly wrong, it has to be "all of them" doing it:

It's not just five banks ... really it's going to come out that it's going to be all of them. It's "cartel-style" corruption; it's not just Barklays.

Be sure to watch Kelleher's close — it touches the political system.

(If you want a backgrounder with a little more depth, here's ours.)

GP

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