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Former Atlanta Fed Executive Vice President Robert Eisenbeis argues it's up to the British to address Libor manipulation.
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Sense of -- reporting.
Bob I devices back with -- former executive vice president with the Atlanta Federal Reserve now with Cumberland advisors.
What to make of all this because Ben Bernanke is saying.
I can't guarantee it's accurate today by the he does he was making a pretty strong case.
That our side the CFTC.
And SEC -- progressively pursued this after they are notified about.
I think he laid out a pretty convincing case that in fact the Federal Reserve did not sit on its hands.
Women received information.
During the financial crisis and this is important.
During the financial crisis that there was miss reporting because of concern about.
Sending the wrong signal to financial markets about the strength of individual institutions.
That's a separate issue from manipulating the rate.
We searched at the Fed -- -- -- all the way back to 1998 raise some questions about by war and it it's computations and there is a number of pieces of evidence that suggests that.
There were other things going on in that market.
But clearly what the chairman really didn't say was that this is a British problem at this point and it's -- to them to fix it.
The Fed did what it could at this point and it's essentially the -- Need to to face up to it.
But the Justice Department it was revealed over the weekend -- prepping criminal cases against individuals and banks.
Is this really criminal Bob come online.
Well if there is a fraudulent.
Representation.
Of the -- and manipulation.
For individual financial institution.
Benefit then I think arguably you have a problem here fraud is different from.
Other issues and I think there's word this that's how they're viewing it at this point.
Given if -- did that government's problem they've it's -- problem of people overseas -- -- our Justice Department involved and a.
Well these institutions operate here in the United States and a lot of their customers are United States citizens and -- this reporting if in fact it was for manipulation purposes.
Ripple far beyond just the UK and the fact that these institutions are licensed to do business in the United States means that they have certain obligations.
Two of up to our standards.
And one -- thing does it bother you at all that Bernanke did say that he can't give you weren't any assurances that the current Libor hit -- -- accurate.
Should we need disturbed by that.
Well certainly we should be disturbed by -- because it it's pretty clear that the construction of their index.
Is flawed then he was quite clear about that and they've done nothing to address it.
And while -- -- that information was brought to their attention.
How long does it take to act on this is that we're talking about several years now that's not prompt action on the part of the -- Now we're talking about four years since the financial crisis said Bob thank you is great to see you again as always thank you for taking the top.
Our eyes and bias with a common.
