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"That’s An Interesting Conspiracy Theory"

Tyler Durden's picture




 

One of the reasons we don't mind (and often enjoy) being labeled "conspiracy theorists" is that as consistently happens, the theory becomes fact, usually with a delay of anywhere between 6 months and 6 years.

A great example is one of our very first posts from January 2009: "This Makes No Sense: LIBOR By Bank" in which we first alleged Libor manipulation.

An even better example comes courtesy of the WSJ which reveals that one of the biggest perpetrators of Libor rigging, the same bank that was raided earlier today for reasons still unknown, namely Deutsche Bank had a quick and easy response to allegations of interest rate rigging: call it "conspiracy theory" and promptly sweep it under the rug.

From the WSJ:

A Deutsche Bank AG executive whose employees have been accused of rigging interest rates told a British trade group that such manipulation was nothing more than a “conspiracy theory,” a London court heard on Tuesday.

 

David Nicholls, who oversaw a group of employees that included some who have been fired for trying to manipulate the London interbank offered rate, or Libor, had a 2008 phone call with a British Bankers’ Association official to discuss mounting concerns about the integrity of Libor.

 

In the recorded call, which was played to a London jury on Tuesday, Mr. Nicholls repeatedly dismissed concerns that Libor could be manipulated. “Banks do not collude to try to set a Libor rating,” he told John Ewan, the BBA official in charge of running Libor.

 

“I think I am just hearing a lot of hysteria about Libor that is just misinformed,” Mr. Nicholls added.

 

When the Deutsche Bank official argued that an individual bank wouldn’t be able to improperly influence Libor, which at the time was set by a group of 16 banks, Mr. Ewan responded: “A cabal of them could.”

 

“What’s a cabal?” Mr. Nicholls asked.

 

“A group together could,” Mr. Ewan said.

 

That’s an interesting conspiracy theory,” Mr. Nicholls responded.

It was also the truth.

David Nicholls left Deutsche Bank two and a half years ago. According to WSJ's David Enrich, he couldn’t be immediately reached for comment, even though it is quite clear what he would have said: continue denying that anything like a massive, coordinated, market0rigging cabal could ever take place.

And yet, nobody has learned anything.

Just like the first big post-crisis settlement involving Goldman Sachs was blamed entirely on one then-28 year old employee and nobody else, so in the case of the massive Libor/FX settlements, not a single senior banker was implicated.

Which is beyond ridiculous. It is also ironic: as the first man charged with Libor rigging, one who was instrumental in turning and handing the case to the prosecution on a silver platter, UBS' Tom Hayes previously told The Wall Street Journal in a text message “this goes much much higher than me.

But if Nicholls couldn't see the open fraud taking place literally in front of him simply because he couldn't possibly imagine of such a "conspiracy theory", how are regulators and prosecutors to possibly conceive that the very people who keep the bribe machine well greased, could be guilty of the same.

So to answer our own question: why has nobody "higher" than Hayes been investigated yet? Because the mere suggestion that executives at UBS, and all the other market manipulating banks, are outright criminals themselves would be, you guessed it, just another "conspiracy theory."

 

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Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:08 | 6179753 MayIMommaDogFac...
MayIMommaDogFace2theBananaPatch's picture

What's a cabal?

Seriously?  Like a defiant teenager digging in for the big lie -- act ignorant.  FTW

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:13 | 6179773 TeamDepends
TeamDepends's picture

What's a market?

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 16:21 | 6180052 Fish Gone Bad
Fish Gone Bad's picture

In spite of all that has come out, the manipulation they performed has not been undone.  VIX and LIBOR used to be at unheard of levels, and now they are near all time lows.  They (The Bankers) continue to benefit from their economic criminal behaviour...

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 16:35 | 6180088 Fish Gone Bad
Fish Gone Bad's picture

This is a bit off topic but, has anyone counted the number of bullet holes from the Kennedy assassination?  Car got shot up along with the people.  There were more than 3 bullet holes (something like 7), soooooo there was more than one person involved, and that by definition, makes it a conspiracy.  Now back to our regularly scheduled conspiracy.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 16:45 | 6180122 Pinto Currency
Pinto Currency's picture

 

 

"Conspiracy theory" is a term used by people as a license not to think or to encourage others not to think.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 17:35 | 6180305 Squid-puppets a...
Squid-puppets a-go-go's picture

when oligarchs form a group to advance their interests its ridiculed as fantasy

when workers do the same its also ridiculed, but its called a Union.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 18:34 | 6180539 greenskeeper carl
greenskeeper carl's picture

What does fiat currency mean?

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 20:09 | 6180851 armageddon addahere
armageddon addahere's picture

Means it depreciates like a rusty Italian car.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 18:26 | 6180487 Zoomorph
Zoomorph's picture

The term "troll" is used similarly, on the internet at least.

Calling someone "crazy" or "evil" also work to the same effect.

Basically, they're all ad hominem attacks to prevent having to think about or understand someone else and to allow one to comfortably stay in ignorance.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:14 | 6179780 Bunga Bunga
Bunga Bunga's picture

"What is a VIX?"

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:34 | 6179855 sodbuster
sodbuster's picture

What's a hemorroid?? Dave Nicholls

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:53 | 6179934 MonetaryApostate
MonetaryApostate's picture

As if it will ever stop?

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 16:56 | 6180170 q99x2
q99x2's picture

A cabal is like a cannibal that eats planets.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 17:48 | 6180349 sgt_doom
sgt_doom's picture

A fantastic book on the LIBOR rigging, written the by Philadelphia Inquirer investigative journalist, Erin Arvedlund:

Open Secret: The Global Banking Conspircy That Swindled Investors Out of Billions

 

http://www.amazon.com/Open-Secret-Conspiracy-Swindled-Investors-ebook/dp/B00DMCPLEI

(this link below for video)

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2014/09/open-secret/

https://erinarvedlund.wordpress.com/

 

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:09 | 6179760 Newsboy
Newsboy's picture

It was your idea, and you used a word I didn't know, so I'll put you down by calling it a "conspiracy theory".

Huh, that's what happened?

You made a lucky guess with your "conspiracy theory".

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:13 | 6179769 Bay of Pigs
Bay of Pigs's picture

Some of us fingered JPM and Barrick Gold back in the late 1990's (along with GATA) on PM manipulation and were labled tinfoilers and conspiracy nuts way back then.

What a ridiculous slog this farce has been...

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:26 | 6179821 Soul Glow
Soul Glow's picture

People just want to make money Bay.  They don't care how.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:31 | 6179847 Bay of Pigs
Bay of Pigs's picture

You mean stealing money by theft, rigging, manipulation, skimming, etc... (by fraudulent means), and not legitimately making it an honest fashion.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 16:30 | 6180078 Fish Gone Bad
Fish Gone Bad's picture

Take a look around you and notice that there are absolutely no models in nature for how people behave.  No animals use money, buy property, go shopping, work at a job, pay taxes, go to the dentist/doctor, etc.  So then if one were to add in, "legitimately making it an honest fashion", that is moral observation of a system that is pretty much "made up" by bankers and politicians.

 

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 16:58 | 6180176 Rusty_Shackleford
Rusty_Shackleford's picture

Not really. 

It just means having the balls and integrity to not live your life through the use of force or fraud.

Just like you do.  I don't imagine you go around every day clubbing people for the things you want, do you?

 

You're an anarchist and didn't even know it.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 17:40 | 6180324 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

He pays taxes. The tax-funded police and military does the bludgeoning for him. I bet you know and play dumb for us.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 18:50 | 6180593 greenskeeper carl
greenskeeper carl's picture

'Dontimagine you go around clubbing people and taking whatever you want'

No, I doubt it. Only the government is allowed to do that...

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 16:59 | 6180177 Rusty_Shackleford
Rusty_Shackleford's picture

dup

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 17:35 | 6180304 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

Not true. Animals do work and some pay a sort of taxes. In all symbiotic or parasitic relationships, which some animals form, an exchange of favors or a theft of resources could be seen as a form of taxation, depending on your interpretation on what taxes are (theoretically an exchange of production for military protection, though quite often the protection never materializes).

Animals have territory, and defend it themselves, which would count as property for an anarchist. Non anarchists just outsource the defense to professional warriors.

Are there any animals that outsource the violence to another species? Maybe in some symbiotic relationships, but i cant remember any off the top of my head.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 17:46 | 6180342 Coke and Hookers
Coke and Hookers's picture

"Are there any animals that outsource the violence to another species? Maybe in some symbiotic relationships, but i cant remember any off the top of my head."

Humans using dogs for protection and war. Several species of ants protect trees from harm with extreme prejudice. There are other examples without doubt.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 18:23 | 6180498 fishwharf
fishwharf's picture

Clown Fish are protected from predator fish by the stinging tentacles of the anemone.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:15 | 6179775 i_call_you_my_base
i_call_you_my_base's picture

The CBs and other authorities in the US and Europe colluded with the banks to fudge lending rates in order to keep them solvent. Geithner was personally involved. This rigging goes to the highest level and will not be prosecuted or brought to light. Ever.

These other manipulatations were "the rig within the rig", which wasn't about solvency, but rather was just oportunists who were able to further game the system, given that it was already broken and unregulated.

This is a recurring theme. There was larger rigging carried out by collusion between the government and banks, but is never mentioned, while minor players get busted for skimming here and there on a daily basis just for show.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:28 | 6179834 El Vaquero
El Vaquero's picture

Broken markets, yes.  Unregulated, no.  It is regulated to TBTF's advantage.  There are tons of rules for them to follow, but they're selectively applied. 

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:36 | 6179868 i_call_you_my_base
i_call_you_my_base's picture

Well, by unregulated, I meant a system in which data is self-declared and ripe for manipulation, rather than a technique like mark-to-market, in which there is at least is some corroboration.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 16:17 | 6180037 CPL
CPL's picture

That would require math and business skills.  Those aren't taught in Ivy leagues.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:14 | 6179781 fauxhammer
fauxhammer's picture

What's a Deutsche-bag?

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:28 | 6179835 madcows
madcows's picture

Q.  Who are three bankers that have never been in my kitchen?

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:47 | 6179915 MayIMommaDogFac...
MayIMommaDogFace2theBananaPatch's picture

+10 Mr. Claven

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:21 | 6179802 ghostzapper
ghostzapper's picture

Scumbag, cocksucker, piece of shit uber-Criminal Bibi may have firmly entrenched the idea in the minds of the regulators that they have nukes placed underneath their office buildings.  

Yeah I know another crazy theory . . . . . . . . . 

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:25 | 6179817 Soul Glow
Soul Glow's picture

Remember when Timmy Geithner was calling Jamie Dimon and Lord Blankfein first thing in the morning from his office at the Treasury?  Yeah no collusion there.

HA!

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:52 | 6179932 Colonel Klink
Colonel Klink's picture

uh-hem, Jamie Demon and Lloyd Bankfiend

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 17:53 | 6180364 sgt_doom
sgt_doom's picture

Speaking of Timmy Geithner, and interesting tidbit from an interview with Prof. Shiller ("Irrational Exuberance") in Michael Hirsh's book, Capital Offense.

Hirsh explains how Prof. Shiller, who had been an advisor to the FRBNY for 14 years, had first mentioned to the new chairman, Timmy Geithner, that housing prices could very well fall, and they should take that into consideration.

Shiller was immediately replaced with Catherine Mann, Peterson Institute stooge, who has written various papers falsely claiming that for each American job offshored, two new jobs are magically created in America, plus would never suggest housing prices could ever fall!

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:26 | 6179820 The Delicate Genius
The Delicate Genius's picture

Q.  "what's a federal reserve note?"

 

A.  [reasonable explication supplied]

 

R2A  "No, that can't be right."

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:33 | 6179827 Rainman
Rainman's picture

so much for mobster theories ...like old Joe Valachi said , " you  live by the gun and knife and die by the gun and knife ".

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:28 | 6179838 Two Theives and...
Two Theives and a Liar's picture

We conspiracy-theoried some folks

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:57 | 6179861 Colonel Klink
Colonel Klink's picture

What's a lying cocksucker?  David Nicholls!

Hey douchebag, the conspiracy theory has already been PROVEN to be conspiracy FACT!

Hope someone Red Army Factions your ass!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Herrhausen

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:35 | 6179865 Fun Facts
Fun Facts's picture

"Conspiracy theory" or "conspiracy theorist" is a derogatory label coined by the CIA and used in the zio meda echo chamber to malign and assassinate the character of anyone who doesn't go along with the govt/msm narrative.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:47 | 6179892 Ignatius
Ignatius's picture

1035-960

The 'conspiracy theory' conspiracy.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:54 | 6179941 Colonel Klink
Colonel Klink's picture

You mean this 1035-960?
http://www.jfklancer.com/CIA.html

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:38 | 6179878 Tinky
Tinky's picture

Matt Groening shows his uncanny ability to distill complex issues, such as Libor rigging:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/2d/2d/58/2d2d5844e3b8bafb6e3de...

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:43 | 6179893 Toolshed
Toolshed's picture

Apparently, Hitler had the right idea, but the wrong demographic. We need to apply his techniques to the bankster class.

 

And we will.........

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:56 | 6179948 Colonel Klink
Colonel Klink's picture

He just rounded up the wrong jews.  The little people instead of the rich and powerful who fled because they had gold sewn into their clothes.

Those same families who are now currently screwing the USA and the world once again.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:43 | 6179900 Joebloinvestor
Joebloinvestor's picture

Anything that can be manipulated will be.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:44 | 6179902 BiPolarFrenchman
BiPolarFrenchman's picture

"It should not even be ENTERTAINED, that powerful people MIGHT get together and form a plan.  You're a nut, you're a kook, you're a conspiracy buff."  Some like that from ~George Carlin

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 17:23 | 6180253 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

Not being very happy and smiling, constantly, is another sympton of insanity. Our brains have a range of emotions meant to fit the situations... sadness for sad situations, happiness for happy situations, neutrality when nothing happens?

Nowdays if you experience anything but happiness, you are insane.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 15:50 | 6179927 freedogger
freedogger's picture

What is a gold?

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 16:17 | 6180040 lasvegaspersona
lasvegaspersona's picture

'a gold' is a currency like piece of paper traded on the Forex at a volume of about 300 billion dollars a day. Formerly it was a metal underlying the trade but now it is simply the promise to deliver the metal in the far distant future. The last trade of actual metal that moved in any significant quantity was before 2012.

The same 'a gold' is also occasionally exchanged on the 'Comex' though the quantities there are miniscule compared to the Forex. The actual weight of paper traded was in the dozens of grams.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 16:13 | 6180023 lasvegaspersona
lasvegaspersona's picture

I think ZH must be in on it...how else would they get all this inside info?

Yep...the real rigger of Libor is......ZeroHedge!!! Crime solved!!

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 16:15 | 6180031 Dixie Flatline
Dixie Flatline's picture

Hidden in plain sight.  Rule no. 1.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 16:29 | 6180076 Niall Of The Ni...
Niall Of The Nine Hostages's picture

Our master class don't all know each other, even by reputation, and they never gather in one place. My best guess is that there's about 30,000 people on earth whose opinions count for much, enough to fill a good sized sports stadium. More to the point, they don't always have the same interests.

What common interests they do have, though, they can be counted on to defend to the death of the last prole they can dupe or impress into fighting for them. When the chips are down, it's the elites against the human race.

The class war is real, the bad guys are winning, and the rest of us can expect no quarter from them when the war is over. Anybody with the gall to point this out is called a conspiracy theorist, to be pointed and laughed at, and tarred with the same brush along with the nutters whose delusions about what's wrong with the world are obviously the product of ignorance, psychosis or both.

Many of those delusions were put about by the elites themselves to confuse people. I doubt David Icke is a deep-cover CIA agent, if only because the stuff about lizard people is a bit too absurd. The Elders of Zion, nobody seriously disputes any more, really were the figment of the imagination of Matvei Golovinski, a Russian journalist living in Paris known to have been a Czarist intelligence asset, who turned Bolshevik after the revolution.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 17:17 | 6180230 Benjamin123
Benjamin123's picture

They gave you a thumb down for not believing in the veracity of the protocols.

I have been forced to betray my formerly beloved zion. For all my efforts all i'll gain is the last spot on the line for the oven.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 17:50 | 6180274 Seek_Truth
Seek_Truth's picture

It doesn't have to be that way.

"If some of the branches have been broken off, and you, though a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing sap from the olive root, do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.” Granted. But they were broken off because of unbelief, and you stand by faith. Do not be arrogant, but tremble. For if God did not spare the natural branches, he will not spare you either.

Consider therefore the kindness and sternness of God: sternness to those who fell, but kindness to you, provided that you continue in his kindness. Otherwise, you also will be cut off. And if they do not persist in unbelief, they will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. After all, if you were cut out of an olive tree that is wild by nature, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more readily will these, the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree!" - Romans 11:17-24

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 17:57 | 6180388 sgt_doom
sgt_doom's picture

Are you totally whack???????????????

I mean, you've never heard of the Group of Thirty (www.group30.org)?

You've never heard of the lobbyist group for the international super-rich, the Bretton Woods Committee (www.brettonwoods.org)?

You never heard of Davos?

The World Economics Forum?

The Bilderbergers, for crissakes?

The Wolfsberg Group?

Saaaaayyyy, wtf have you ever heard of .....

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 16:50 | 6180130 WTFUD
WTFUD's picture

Listen Good, Peeps.
The average timeline between 'conspiracy theory ' and 'fact' is DIRECTLY RELATED to the DURATION of ONE POLITICIAN'S TERM IN OFFICE.
This informs US that these CROOKED BOUGHT OUT BASTARDS ARE ON THE TAKE FROM DAY ONE.

THOSE TREASONOUS CUNTS SHOULD HANG or meet with one of kchrisc's already assembled Guillotine's.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 16:54 | 6180160 Colonel Klink
Colonel Klink's picture

That timeline has shortened considerably under the Obomba administration since the lies he tells are verifible well before he's left office.

Please google the literal dozens of lies and scandals foisted upon the American people during his term(s) in office.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 17:02 | 6180194 BoPeople
BoPeople's picture

In this particular case, calling it a conspiracy theory is not a denial that it is true. The fact that it is not a denial makes it more like an admission of truth ... although in a criminal case the courts would most likely not agree.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 17:11 | 6180214 WTFUD
WTFUD's picture

As the late great Roy Orbison sang BoPeople

Baaaby You got It.

R.I.P. Roy

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 17:22 | 6180246 brucekeller
brucekeller's picture

Jan 2009? ZH was started near the end of the downturn?   My conspiracy theory is ZH was planted to keep enough people bearish to help support the stock market recovery through short squeezes  and to blind people to how QE was going to keep the market lifted. :D

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 17:33 | 6180297 WTFUD
WTFUD's picture

No Sarc Required.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 17:22 | 6180247 brucekeller
brucekeller's picture

Jan 2009? ZH was started near the end of the downturn?   My conspiracy theory is ZH was planted to keep enough people bearish to help support the stock market recovery through short squeezes  and to blind people to how QE was going to keep the market lifted. :D

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 17:59 | 6180398 wildbad
wildbad's picture

clinton hubbie of the beast tried to redefine the word "is" during the blowjob hearins.  what is a cabal?

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 18:09 | 6180441 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

The banksters are a cabal within a cabal (Zabal?).

My guillotine and I are a cabal as well.

Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission..

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 18:33 | 6180533 gwar5
gwar5's picture

It will be a happy day when the kingpins of the rigged markets fall off buildings not the whistleblowers.

Tue, 06/09/2015 - 19:17 | 6180702 Bobbo
Bobbo's picture

Does anyone ever say, "That's an interesting coincidence theory"?

Wed, 06/10/2015 - 03:50 | 6181604 Magooo
Magooo's picture

The Fed issues the orders to such men.   And the Fed is not only above the law --- IT IS THE LAW.

 

The owners of the private company that print the reserve currency run the world.  Plain and simple.

Wed, 06/10/2015 - 10:19 | 6182289 Billy Bob101
Billy Bob101's picture

Collusion and oligopoly go together like wet and water.  That's not a conspiracy theory.

Wed, 06/10/2015 - 12:51 | 6182934 Hannibal
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