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The leader of the Labor Party in Britain, Edward Milband, has joined London Mayor Boris Johnson in calling for criminal investigations into the widening LIBOR scandal involving Barclays during which that bank and many others may have colluded to fix interest rates to the detriment of anyone who has to borrow money or issue government bonds. Said Johnson:

To manipulate an interest rate for gain looks to me like a very, very dodgy practice indeed. And I hope that the whole thing is fully investigated and those who are liable pay the price.

It’s not for me to say who is culpable in this, but plainly banks have been forthcoming in getting their dirty linen out there and I think the whole banking industry now needs to come clean about what has been going on. And, in so far as there has been a conspiracy to manipulate Libor, which seems to be what’s going on, in so far as that has been done for gain by these banks in order to guarantee the success of their own derivatives, trades or whatever, then it strikes me that that is almost certainly criminal and there needs to be a proper investigation.

Then Milband chimed in and said:

This cannot be about a slap on the wrist, a fine and the foregoing of bonuses.

To believe that is the end of the matter would be totally wrong.

When ordinary people break the law, they face charges, prosecution and punishment.

We need to know who knew what when, and criminal prosecutions should follow against those who broke the law.

The same should happen here.

The public who are paying the price for bankers’ irresponsibility will expect nothing less …

We need the strongest punishment, a change in regulation and a change in the culture of our banks.

While our political culture is wasting its time on the so-called Fast and Furious scandal and other diversions, the too-big-to-fail banks both here and abroad continue to act as if the 2008 financial meltdown never happened.

Manipulating key interests rates to favor the banks costs everyone but the banks huge sums of money, including local and state governments teetering toward bankruptcy who end up paying higher interest rates than they should while the bankers get rich and rape the national and local economies in the process.

If you want to keep up with what is happening in this sphere, I suggest you follow the postings of Duncan Osborne who does a magnificent jobs keeping up with some complicated issues.

I will vote for Barack Obama this fall because the alternative is so awful. But let’s be clear: the Democrats have been only marginally better than the Republicans were on meaningful oversight of Wall Street.

Yes, some of this stuff is dry and boring. But this is the real story of the world’s continuing financial catastrophe and, amazingly, the people who did it all prior to 2008 are still doing it and the Republicans are doing everything in their power to keep your attention on Barack Obama and not on the people who are taking us down the same dangerous road again.

As for whether any higher-up bankers end up in jail, I’ll believe it when I see it. Let’s hope they stick to their word.

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