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Bob Diamond |
As Guido Fawkes establishes today the ramifications of manipulating the key Libor interest rate downwards is much more explosive than pushing it upwards.
In the latter making a fast buck was the goal; but in the former the intention was to make the bank concerned - Barclays is unlikely to have been alone - appear more financially secure than it was.
Keeping interest rates low - which is after all the aim of quantitative easing - in a squeeze makes sense. It may prove to be that City institutions - perhaps even the Bank of England itself - gave a nod and a wink to such practices.
However there are casualties - namely savers of all colours from OAPs scraping by to City investment funds.
It is one thing to suffer a drop in income in the natural swing of interest rate forces; but quite another if the numbers are being fiddled.
Ed Miliband is wrong to press for a Leveson-style inquiry. Opening Pandora's Box could expose the degree of Labour's Brown-nosing of the City of London when in government. The Libor scandal happened on its watch.
The international ramifications of the furore will excite the ever-litigious Americans; class actions will follow.
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What do you think? GC