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| Bob Diamond has disclosed details of conversations he had with government officials asking him to rig the market. |
We have been perpetually bombarded by a succession of frauds, Barclays manipulating the LIBOR rate and now testimony that they were put under pressure by the regulator and the Labour Government to further manipulate. Read Bob Diamond's statement here.
Matt Taibbi, at Rolling Stone Magazine points out that RBS have similarly settled and one can only wonder how long it will be until the other 14 banks similarly make a settlement in the hopes of avoiding a criminal prosecution. UBS will also settle in due course.
In 'The Scam that Wall Street learned from the Mafia' Matt follows the trial of three defendants who were convicted of colluding to lower the interest rates offered to municipalities with a sheer incredulity that they would even bother to try to defend their actions in the face of overwhelming evidence, but these are just small players and the bosses, who ultimately have responsibility for everything that occurs under their authority continue to be allowed to simply say, 'I didn't know'.
There are scandals in the West's other big industry, pharmaceuticals has also stumped up large fines to governments this week. These fines are of course only ever a fraction of the profit that these companies make and thus act as a 'cost' rather than a deterrent.
But increasingly it seems that all this malfeasance has been continuing with the knowledge and at least tacit approval of world governments, reporting on the War on Drugs
The war on drugs isn't just a huge, bloody, and counterproductive waste of money and lives. Turns out it's also the "main reason" HIV/AIDS is still spreading around the world.
That's the blunt assessment of the gold-plated Global Commission on Drug Policy, an all-star team of former presidents and assorted luminaries who call in a new report for big changes in the way governments tackle drugs.
"The global war on drugs is driving the HIV pandemic among people who use drugs and their sexual partners," says the report. "Repressive drug law enforcement practices" – drug seizures, arrests, criminal convictions – "force drug users away from public health services and into hidden environments where HIV risk becomes markedly elevated." Mass incarceration, another mainstay of the drug war, also plays a role, says the report, noting that as many as 25 percent of Americans infected with HIV may pass every year through correctional facilities, where prevention and treatment measures leave a lot to be desired.
The result: HIV is bigger than it needs to be in countries like the U.S. and is growing in certain regions and countries, thanks mostly to injection drug use.
The commissioners -- they include six former presidents and other assorted big shots, such as Richard Branson, Paul Volcker, and George Schultz -- slam countries like the United States and Russia for ignoring or downplaying proven, cost-effective and "evidence-based addiction treatment and public health measures" like sterile syringe access, safer injection facilities, and prescription heroin programs, and call on governments to change course "immediately." "Failure to take these steps is criminal," the report says.Increasingly it seems at the end of every action there is a Civil Servant rubber stamping it and a politician profiting from it.
Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, the ONLY solution is to take back the power for yourself, do not submit to fraud and corruption, do not place your faith in government
