As I type this, a "lively" discussion around LIBOR is taking place on Up With Chris Hayes. Among the participants are (as credited on the bottom-screen crawl):
Jared Bernstein
Fmr. Economic Advisor to VP Biden
Karl Smith
Economic Prof., UNC - Chapel Hill
Karl Smith, throughout the discussion, has been behaving as an apologist for Barclay's. The discussion went on at some length, and Smith repeatedly made the case that he didn't think anything particularly harmful was going on. One back-and-forth just before a commercial break made me almost spit-take my coffee. The quote is below the squiggle that is itself a diary topic.
Bernstein: Karl, you don't think it's OK that they rigged rates, right? Even if they were doing it unsystematically. That's not OK with you, I hope.
Smith: I mean I, I, I, I am not in any way shocked that LIBOR was rigged by like 5 or 6 basis points.
Bernstein: Shocked, I'm asking ... do you think this is emblematic of a system that's OK, that's functioning in a way that's comensurate with a good, a good, transparent economy?
Smith: I mean, I don't think that there's a major problem with it.
Bernstein and others: Whoaa!
Karl Smith, you are a university professor of economics, and you state plain as day you don't see a major problem with the LIBOR manipulation that has been going on?
UNC: This is the quality of education you are providing?