Media Navel Gaze: July 16, 2012
The Week Unpeeled
It became than more than lonely at the top of the financial world last week; it became a “cesspit” (Paul Tucker, depy gov of BoE on rate-rigging mess.) Liborgate claimed more bonuses as accusations mounted and talk increased of lawsuits from pension funds, hedge funds and municipalities. This will be big no doubt. Francesco Guerrera in The Wall Street Journal last week outlined potential scenarios in “Libor Drama Isn’t Over Yet: Watch for 5 Aftershocks,” Tuesday, July 10. (“The probe will claim more bank chiefs” and “Regulators should shoulder some blame,” among others.)
Other Related News and Other Gaze-Worthy Stories
- Bob Diamond gave up bonuses worth up to £20m after resigning from Barclays amid the bank Libor scandal; however, he will still receive his salary and benefits worth in excess of £2m. Diamond is claiming it is “terribly unfair” and “unfounded” claims that he misled the committee over Libor rigging;
- Tucker denied that ministers, officials or the BoE sanctioned the fixing of bank borrowing costs at the height of the financial crisis at a Treasury Select Committee hearing;
- According to Morgan Stanley, 12 global banks linked to the Libor scandal face as much as $22bn in combined regulatory penalties and damages to investors and counter parties;
- HSBC could face a fine of up to $1bn (£645m) in the US for failing to combat money laundering;
- JPMorgan Chase announced second-quarter losses of $4.4bn and that the “whale” losses hit as much as $5.8bln;
- Moody's cut Italy's credit rating by two notches overnight, to Baa2 - just two notches above junk status;
- Peregrine’s CEO confessed to fraud in a suicide (failed) note where he claimed to have been bilking customers more than $100m over a 20-year period;
- China’s growth fell to 7.6 percent in the second quarter, its lowest rate since depths of financial crisis in 2009;
- The Dow ended a six-day losing streak Friday by closing up 203 points to close at 12,777;
- The British government is racing to resolve a major security blunder two weeks before the London Olympics and is calling in up to 3,500 extra military troops;
- The banking scandals headlines seemed to overshadow any scoops last week out of Allen and Co.’s annual media/tech/money mash up in Sun Valley, Idaho;
- Financier Leon Black was unmasked as the mystery buyer of “Scream,” for which he paid $120m for the pastel. (BoE officials screaming, too, right?);
- And the Rolling Stones as a band turned 50 last week!!! Amen to that.
