Rolling Stone‘s Matt Taibbi said in a 7.19 “Democracy Now!” interview that Average Joes were screwed by the Libor scandal because lower interest rates almost certainly led to major cuts in state and local government spending.
“If you live in a town that had a budget crisis, that had to lay off firemen or teachers or policemen, or couldn’t provide services or textbooks in their schools, you know, that might be due to this,” Taibbi said. “Basically, every city and town in America, to say nothing of the rest of the world, has investments that are pegged to Libor.”
Sixteen gangsta banks, including Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, and Citigroup, are facing possible prosecution for allegedly rigging the Libor, a defining kingshit interest rate that banks agree to and use to lend money to each other. Hundreds of trillions of dollars in loans and derivatives were set by Libor. It is believed that its manipulation possibly cost some cities and states many, many millions.