Hopefully Ed Balls is screwed - Diamond vs Select cttee

grizzly1911

The_J wrote: »

10 days profit is a "massive fine"? I think Barclays may have bitten their arm off at the elbow to accept that.

And Bob ids reputedly taking the equivalent of 10/15% of that "massive fine" in "severance" apparently which puts it into context

The extent to which BD speaks out will be dependent on how far he is threatened/accused IMO.

MS1950

PaulF81 wrote: »

Turns out that there may have been complicity with the BOE and Barclays into the rigging of LIBOR. The telegraph has described "Senior Treasury Officials" Being involved.

Ed Balls was playing the typical holier than thou in the commons the other day, which is typical of snake-like ministers with blood on their hands.

I just hope that this takes him down. How anyone could vote for a man that is pretty much a snake with 2 arms and legs is beyond me. He sweats pure careerist, Machiavellian evil and deserves his comeuppance if they prove a link between him and rigged LIBOR

I haven't got any particular liking for Balls but seems only fair to repeat that he was Children's Minister at the time of phone call between Diamond & the BoE:

"Balls became Economic Secretary to the Treasury, a junior ministerial position in HM Treasury, in the government reshuffle of May 2006. When Gordon Brown became Prime Minister on 27 Jun 2007, Balls was promoted to Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Balls

But on the wider Libor question, as .Stephanie Flanders points out, Libor is notional or effectively ficticious anyway:

"So, maybe the Euribor and Libor rates correspond to something, but we know for a fact that they do not always, or even usually, correspond to an actual transaction. Nor, if you look at the guidelines for setting Libor on the British Bankers' Association (BBA) website, are they required to. Banks merely have to report the rate at which they "could" borrow funds before 11am, were they to decide to do so. How, exactly, each bank determines the rate is largely up to them".

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-your-money-18701623

Worth reading.

wotsthat

Is anyone watching the committee?

I've watched the first half hour. Unimpressed with the questioning - all seems a little disjointed which means no-one, so far, is any the wiser.

Ed Balls hasn't got a mention yet.

Wookster

I'm listening now... Diamond is almost doing the Geoff Hoon "It wasn't me."

David Ruffley is mighty p1ssed off and turning the screws.

Wookster

Question of the day

"Mr Diamond you seem to be inhabiting a parallel universe"

abaxas

wotsthat wrote: »

Is anyone watching the committee?

I've watched the first half hour. Unimpressed with the questioning - all seems a little disjointed which means no-one, so far, is any the wiser.

Ed Balls hasn't got a mention yet.

Gave up at 30 mins. But looking forward to newsnight later!

wotsthat

I'm afraid Milliband is right. Politcians asking questions of bankers is a waste of time. Get ready for the judge led enquiry when we'll get the stuff people are really interested in i.e. the drunken sex orgies and tales of prossies and bolly.

This is going nowhere.

StevieJ

Quite a humorous comment by Diamond (bearing in mind the Barclay's share price had fallen from £7.50 to 50 pence).

Mr Diamond said the conversation with Mr Tucker came shortly before the bank secured funding with Abu Dhabi on October 31, implying it may not have completed had concerns over Barclays' financial health spread.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/diamond-faces-showdown-mps-024945331.html

vivatifosi

I'm bored and may have to nip back later for the highlights as I'm clearly not interested enough to get them myself. This is what I've taken away:

Diamond: I love Barclays! They are wonderful, love and light and pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and unicorns marvellous.

Everyone else: are you sure? I must dispute that. I'd just like to go over this again... without getting anywhere.

Meanwhile, I can't get out of my head that Diamond is really Biff the bully from Back to the Future in his all grown up form:
http://whatculture.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/back2thefutureone79.jpeg

The_J

Wookster wrote: »

Question of the day

"Mr Diamond you seem to be inhabiting a parallel universe"

No, it's that kind of garbage line of questioning that gets these stupid "select committees" nowhere.

What is clear in these meetings is that our politicians are literally the dumbest of the dumb, they make the !!!!!! posters of this forum look knowledgeable. It's like a child interviewing Stephen Hawking.

Bob Diamond is worth hundreds of millions. I don't care what anyone says about bankers being shysters let me tell you you have to be unbe-!!!!ing-lievably smart, clinical, conniving, tactical and successful to get to his position with his wealth. Do you know how many equally smart, clinical, tactical people are jockeying for position in this industry? The cream rises to the top, that cream may be the devil incarnate in your opinion but if you ever, even for a second, think these people are just "lucky" and landed in this role with everything given to them you are so far removed from reality next you'll be questioning if Barney is your birth father.