The great horsemeat scandal appears the result of fraud perpetrated in the European meat processing insudtry, and it worked because the supermarkets really care very little about food quality: care little and test less. The media frenzy has spurred on the arrest of a handful of people from small British abattoirs which are in no way central to the main scandal, and I suspect those arrested may prove to have done very little wrong.
But compare this rapid arrest of “small men” with the LIBOR scandal, where banks indisputably rigged, deliberately and repeatedly rigged, the basis of many trillions of dollars worth of financial transactions. It was deliberate dishonesty, fines on the banks have added up to billions, but not one of the fraudulent bankers who did it has been arrested – even though it is known who they are and there is a ton of documentary evidence. Not one arrest. Not one. Just as nobody has been arrested in this country for the fraudulent sub-prime packages and interest rate swaps that led ordinary, and even very poor, people to have to pay out huge proportions of their income to “bailout” the bankers.
The bankers meanwhile have got the bonus fatcat schemes rolling again. The economy is based on institutionalised robbery. The perpetrators are untouchable. They don’t get dirty with guts and blood. Little men who do are expendable. They can be made examples of, to feed the lust of the tabloid fed masses.
I wish I could disagree with one word of this, and maybe I wouldn’t be so depressed.
Quite so Craig. Gideon meanwhile is trying (yes he is very trying) to attack corporate tax evasion. Do not hold your collective breaths in the belief that anything will change.
Countries join in tax reform plea
UK Chancellor George Osborne will join French and German counterparts at the G20 summit to call for global rules to tackle corporate tax avoidance.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-21481932
What I do not understand is why the stock exchanges are booming while the economies are tanking.
eg Stock exchanges 100 12 mth graphs.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business/market_data/stockmarket/twelve_month.stm
You could argue that LIBOR never had the potential to kill anyone and that allowing possibly contaminated products into our food, and into our children’s food, is actually a tad more serious than manipulating interest rates.
Just a thought.
Arrests were reported in December, e.g.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/dec/11/libor-investigation-three-arrested
Stock exchanges, since the end of Glass-Steagall, became disengaged from the real economy – until the markets in CDOs, credit default swaps and other fanciful creations got going as engines for making vast wealth out of nothing. We are now in the post-CDO era where such fantasy markets are discredited, but….there are still oceans of wealth that need to go somewhere, so it goes into commodity speculation (food, oil, etc) or, at a pinch, back into stocks and shares.
The wealthy have too much money, and global finance will channel it anywhere, into anything, just to turn an easy, fast buck.
Jimrhiz
I stand corrected – up to a point. Interesting that the vast majority of those who rigged LIBOR still work in the banks, and the three arrests were of people all specifically no longer working for the banks.
Anyone know if they were charged?
mikecobley
“The wealthy have too much money, and global finance will channel it anywhere, into anything, just to turn an easy, fast buck.”
And to pretend the wealth really exists.
Token.
Libor arrests signal switch to individuals
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/09da11e4-43a9-11e2-a48c-00144feabdc0.html#ixzz2L3Zcbhzv
People familiar with the probe identified the three arrested UK citizens as former UBS trader Tom Hayes and RP Martin brokers Jim Gilmour and Terry Farr. They have not been charged with wrongdoing and by Wednesday morning had been bailed pending further investigation. Lawyers for the three men could not immediately be reached for comment.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2013/feb/06/libor-rigging-timeline
A few fines.
“Nothing to see here Guv. Move along now. Clear the pavement.”
I agree that a mere three arrests hardly seem proportionate to the scale of the apparent fraud.
The SFO press release about the arrests (very brief) is at
http://www.sfo.gov.uk/press-room/latest-press-releases/press-releases-2012/libor–three-arrested-.aspx
The SFO has no more recent press release about LIBOR. Does that mean no one has been charged yet?
The good news is there’s a much lower risk of contracting mad cow disease from those Mr Ed’s Hamburgers you’ve been buying from the frozen foods section.
Er Hello.
“A tad more serious”
What could thise trillions of dollars achieved..
Try vaccinations, irragation systems and food programs, an to boo medial control and education programmes.
Just sayin”
Jay,
Yes. In fact there is no evidence at all that the horsemeat scandal has caused any serious threat to human life. Tiny traces of horse pharmaceuticals have been nowhere near significant levels. That is not to say that they should be there at all or that the mislabelling is not a dreadful scandal. But to hype it as life-threatening is silly.
I expect the bank frauds and subsequent world recessions are both directly and indirectly responsible for a huge number of deaths.
Another profitable number is NHS Management. Speak out then get 500k payoff and a gagging order.
“.. there is no evidence at all that the horsemeat scandal has caused any serious threat to human life. Tiny traces of horse pharmaceuticals have been nowhere near significant levels. ”
More by luck than good judgement though. Post BSE the EU is supposed to have “robust” procedures in place to guarantee food quality, farm to fork as they say, if unregulated horse meat can turn up on our plates unnoticed what else are we eating?
Any evidence that vaccination programmes etc were cancelled because of LIBOR?
If only the problem were limited to honest, uncontaminated horse meat being passed off as beef. Given the unhealthy conditions in which even government-approved beef is raised nowadays – largely or wholly grain-fed, and unexercised – meat from working horses is probably rather more nutritious.
It is amusing to hera the supermarket bosses protesting that they didn’t know, they weren’t aware. True, but only because they were at such great pains not to know. Exactly as Nick Leeson’s bosses at Barings, long ago, didn’t know about the nature of his dealings. They were only interested in the profits he generated, and didn’t care to learn more.
And I do wish the ignorant, lazy media would stop calling phenylbutazone “bute”. My family comes from the Island of Bute (on my mother’s side, and even my father was accepted as a legitimate “incomer” after 30 or 40 years).
They may feel “bute” is shorter. But that’s no excuse. My name for Cameron is also shorter, but no newspaper is likely to print it.
Standing back a little, when looking at all the food scares in the past, they all seem to be scaring people away from healthy choices, and or ignoring the real killers:
“Sugar doesn’t cause diabetes” = false
“Saturated fats cause heart problems” = false
“Low fat foods have shown various benefits” = false
“Beef causes CJD” = rarely
“Vegetarian diet is healthiest and natural” = false
“Various poultry diseases cause risks” = not if you cook them properly
All the above have shown up in Government advice documents; backed up by the ‘best’ science tax money can buy!
I think Tony Robinson said it all on Question Time.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-3C_S4YI3U
@kempe
Good point. There would need to be to link Libor with vaccination cancelation.
A very salient point.
You cannot deny the value of trilliions of dollars and its ease of application to enhance the all but a few.
In real terms ti fill the belly of a child would be easier than producing a 20″” musical Fireman Sam..
Needs must eh.
If you don’t understand the Fireman Sam concept.
Think of it like conceptual art.
Mull it over.
Only the collapse of the current world financial system, which would initially hurt us all, would enable a new system where the medium of exchange was more equitable. Only after such a collapse would the ‘sheeple’ begin to wake up to how they have been ripped off and made to pay for everything through their taxes in an economic system established on mythological premises like liquidity ratio. Unfortunately those at the leading-edge of the world financial system believe that wars are good for certain individuals, and they appear to be so for the Rothschilds, as history has shown. But not so good for those who die in them. Two of the countries which do not have a Rothschild central bank are North Korea and Iran. Consequently they are on the Israel/US/NATO hit-list. One day this message will get home despite interjections in support of these practices by the hairy giants under the bridge.
JimmyGiro
16 Feb, 2013 – 11:53 am
“Standing back a little, when looking at all the food scares in the past, they all seem to be scaring people away from healthy choices, and or ignoring the real killers:
“Sugar doesn’t cause diabetes” = false
“Saturated fats cause heart problems” = false
“Low fat foods have shown various benefits” = false
“Beef causes CJD” = rarely
“Vegetarian diet is healthiest and natural” = false
“Various poultry diseases cause risks” = not if you cook them properly
All the above have shown up in Government advice documents; backed up by the ‘best’ science tax money can buy!”
All the above is complete bollocks.
Can we have references to your sources for the above crap Jimmy?
Craig,
http://www.leap2020.eu/GEAB-N-72-is-available-Global-systemic-crisis-Second-half-of-2013-The-reality-or-the-anticipation-of-the-Dollar_a13384.html
@ Doug Scorgie
Sugar:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM
Saturated fat:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRe9z32NZHY
Not bad videos on nutritional science… I found the guy in the first video overstates things a bit which shouldnt help his case as the facts speak quite well for themselves without being hyped with mantras like “sugar is a poison”. It’s not really ostensibly a poison, although many things can be poisinous in some respect, its just very unhealthy to consume daily, unlike fats.
Sugar consumption has been commercialy promoted and fats have been scapegoated/red herringed, probably completely unfairly. Vegetable oils composition and indiviual qualities vary greatly and i think there is some prejudice involved and no good reason to drag vegetarian diets into the conflict.
But there are people with a tendency to lump everything they ever had an issue with together, in a chain of overstatements, relying on part contact with reality to support the whole.
I didnt find these two lecturers did that, but get a sense that since their messages are commercially respressed and they are underdogs of their feilds in america at least, they are pressured into a scene where people are frustrated and overstating, and others are doing the same with poorer ideas.
@ John Goss :
here you are again with this nonsense (nonsense from the point of view of your argument, such as it is) about North Korea and Iran not “having a “Rothschild central bank” – whatever that might be.
I believe I demolished you on that one some time ago.
There are enough real events to worry about without spouting this sort of paranoid piffle.
‘And I do wish the ignorant, lazy media would stop calling phenylbutazone “bute”.’
Why should they, that’s what everybody else calls it, that’s what I’ve always called it, that’s what the vet calls it. Call it phenylbutazone and a lot of horse owners won’t know what you’re talking about.
The rich get richer and the poor get children!