If you still think that the power of Big Banks hasn't gotten so out of control that it continues to be a serious drag on the world economy you need to consider this new report that the Big Banks may (I think almost certainly) have been fixing interest rates worldwide.
Big banks at center of interest rate probe
By James O'Toole @CNNMoneyMarkets March 11, 2012: 8:08 PM ET
The London Interbank Offered Rate, or Libor, is a measure of the cost of borrowing between banks that serves as a benchmark for over $350 trillion worth of financial products worldwide.
With all the different loans and investments tied to Libor, there are serious consequences if the process is tampered with.
"If you move it even a little bit, it can cause massive redistribution of resources because it's so extensively used," said Rosa Abrantes-Metz, a professor at New York University's Stern School of Business and a former economist with the Federal Trade Commission.
A "massive redistribution of resources' is another way of saying the Big Bankers are helping themselves to an even heftier cut of the whole economy.
Last week, the Justice Department said in a letter to a federal judge that it was conducting a criminal investigation of alleged Libor manipulation. Officials in Switzerland, Canada and the United Kingdom are also looking into the issue, according to disclosures in several banks' public filings.
The Libor is set by the British Bankers' Association. Any Association with the word Bankers' in it doesn't inspire my confidence.
Our self styled "Masters of the Universe" are slaves to their insatiable greed, and they are laying claim to larger and larger slice of the economy to attempt to satisfy their consuming greed. A greed that has become a burden and a theat to the world's economy.