“If you can’t love yourself, how the hell you gonna love somebody else?” - RuPaul - - - - - - - - - - - “if by a "Liberal" they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people -- their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, and their civil liberties -- someone who believes we can break through the stalemate and suspicions that grip us in our policies abroad, if that is what they mean by a "Liberal," then I'm proud to say I'm a "Liberal.” - John F. Kennedy - - - - - - - - - - - - “Imagine finding someone you love more than anything in the world, who you would risk your life for but couldn’t marry. And you couldn’t have that special day the way your friends do – you know, wear the ring on your finger and have it mean the same thing as everybody else. Just put yourself in that person’s shoes. It makes me feel sick to my stomach …. When I shared a picture of my tattoo on my Twitter page and said, ‘ALL LOVE is equal,’ a lot of people mocked me – they said, ‘What happened to you? You used to be a Christian girl!’ And I said, ‘Well, if you were a true Christian, you would have your facts straight. Christianity is about love.’ The debate resulted in a lot of threats and hate mail to people who agreed and disagreed with me. At one point I had to say, ‘Dude, everyone lay off.’ Can’t people have friendly debates about sensitive topics without it turning into unnecessary threats?” - Pop star Miley Cyrus on her marriage equality tattoo - - - - - - - - - - -
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Saturday, April 6, 2013

Crimes of the Century - No. 18 - The Collapse of Barings Bank, 1995

THE COLLAPSE OF BARINGS BANK, 1995
 
Barings was the oldest investment bank in Britain, listing among its clients the Queen herself. 

Indeed, the bank's pedigree was so distinguished that it did not have a logo, it had a crest. And yet, in order to survive in the late 20th century, Barings called on young, not necessarily upper-class go-getters who knew how to work the new instruments of global finance like derivatives. Among these hungry young climbers was Nick Leeson, the son of a council estates plasterer.

Starting in Barings' back office, he proved himself adept at understanding the derivatives market and soon found himself stationed in Singapore, betting on market shifts around the world. At one point, his speculations accounted for 10% of Barings profits. He was a star. But he also knew how to manipulate the internal system and created a secret Barings account whose losses the bank automatically covered. He started risking huge amounts of money on the Nikkei, betting that the Japanese stock market would go up. Instead it went crashing down with a gigantic earthquake in Kobe on Jan. 17, 1995. Leeson's losses mounted quickly until he realized they would swamp not only him but all of Barings. And indeed it did. They came to more than $1 billion, an amount the bank could not cover. It collapsed that March and was bought by the Dutch financial company ING for one British pound. Leeson fled but was extradited to Singapore where he served six and a half years for fraud. He is now the manager of a soccer team in Scotland.
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It's crazy to go back and read about something like this.  Especially knowing that none of the banks who had a part in our financial crisis a few years ago will ever be prosecuted.  The statute of limitations for fraud or federal offenses is only 5 years.  This means they'll be getting away from their money laundering, securities fraud and interest-rate rigging schemes.  To read more about Barings Bank, go here. Or to read more about our financial crisis, go here.  Sources: Time, NYT, Wikipedia
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TIME Magazine posted this article online several years ago, along with a list of 24 additional notorious crimes that I have been posting and will continue to post every Saturday on my blog.  Hope you enjoy.
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To read the previous 17 crimes - click my logo below.
 

1 comment:

Ryan said...

It's sad that no bank ceo will ever be arrested. The least we can be thankful for is the regulations that Obama has put into place to protect people from the banks and their former maleficent practices. The big banks have always been a hungry, rabid dog, only now they're on a choke chain that I hope lasts.

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