Paul Jorion's Blog

Author: Paul Jorion

  • ATLANTICO.fr, The LIBOR scandal : are bankers totally untrustworthy?

    The LIBOR scandal : are bankers totally untrustworthy?? Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell Can a banker be trusted? This is indeed the question one is obliged to ask in the light of the “LIBOR affair” which broke in April 2008 and saw a dramatic turn of events four years later, on the 27th…

  • FORMER C.O.O. OF BARCLAYS, JERRY DEL MISSIER’S HEARING, BEFORE A BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY SELECT COMMISSION

    Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell Up to now in the LIBOR affair, the witness statements before the parliamentary select committee have essentially seen everyone lying to protect their own interests. The inevitable result is a sort of cacophony, compounded by strategy changes half-way through, which was particularly the case for Bob Diamond, former…

  • LE MONDE-ÉCONOMIE, The LIBOR affair…… a scandal postponed from 2008, Monday 16 – Tuesday 17 July 2012

    My most recent column in the French daily paper Le Monde : Le scandale du Libor, c’était en 2008. Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell. When the LIBOR affair first broke in April 2008, the press comments were laconic to say the least. Last month, when the fire that had been smouldering flared up again with…

  • THE FOUR YEARS NEEDED TO CREATE A SCANDAL

    Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell Over recent years you may have seen me carrying out extremely complex complications such as this: “it needed four years – between 1929 and 1933 – before any genuine measures were taken at the time of the Great Depression!” And it was this kind of calculation which led…

  • PROGRESS, TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE, by François Leclerc

    Guest post. Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell When there seems no way out, and the future seems unclear, it is then that promising visions of the future seem to abound. The Bundesbank, accompanied by all those who take their cues from it, never miss an opportunity to remind us of the formula they…

  • PERPLEXING MATTERS, by François Leclerc

    Guest post. Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell Two days ago, Christian Noyer, the Governor of the Bank of France, confidently commented on the decision taken by the BCE to put an end to all remuneration on the liquidities parked in the Eurosystem by the commercial banks. The banks prefer placing their holdings in…

  • WELL SPOTTED, BRAVO!, by François Leclerc

    Guest post. Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell As already highlighted the Spanish government is already benefitting from a de facto rescue plan under another name. To save appearances, the new austerity measures put forward for vote in parliament have not been the object of a memorandum jointly signed with those providing the funds,…

  • THE NEW “STEWARDSHIP OF FINANCE” CHAIR AT THE VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL

    The new “Stewardship of Finance” chair at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel

  • TIME WILL TELL… AND MAYBE IT ALREADY HAS , by François Leclerc

    Guest post. Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell In the hope of solving the problems once and for all, Mariano Rajoy has decided to take drastic measures in Spain. Taken as a whole, he asserts that the measures that he is going to have adopted by the Cortes (the Spanish Parliament) represent some 65…

  • THE NEW “STEWARDSHIP OF FINANCE” CHAIR AT THE VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSEL

    In September of last year, Paul De Knop, rector of Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), set up a project for a teaching and research chair on the subject of finance seen from an ethical perspective. He put together a multidisciplinary team presided over by Michel Flamée, professor of law at the VUB, and including representatives from…

  • THE HEARING OF PAUL TUCKER, DEPUTY-GOVERNOR OF THE BANK OF ENGLAND, BEFORE THE BRITISH TREASURY SELECT COMMITTEE

    Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell Paul Tucker, Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, made a statement this afternoon before a British Treasury Select Committee. The reason for his presence today was that on the 4th July, before this same committee, Bob Diamond (who was the Chief Executive of Barclays until a few…

  • LIBOR: WE AIN’T SEEN NOTHING YET

    Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell From the Financial Services Authority’s Final Notice of their decision, dated the 27th June, to impose an 85 million Pound fine on Barclays Bank (less a reduction of 30% for exemplary co-operation with the enquiry) due to their manipulation of the LIBOR interbank rates, two separate periods need…

  • REFRESHER COURSE: HOW AL CAPONE FELL

    Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell Idea association being an excellent means of investigation… here is a reminder of this article dating from 26th March 2010. Everybody knows the history of Al Capone, who was never caught by the American state for his racketeering activities but was brought down by an investigation for tax…

  • THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE CRISIS WHO ARE RARELY TALKED ABOUT

    Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell The question of whether a debt contract can be considered as money is central to my book L’argent mode d’emploi (2009). I expose the violence exerted by Joseph Schumpeter (1883-1950), when he imposed the idea that such was the case, and I demonstrated the inanity of the pseudo-arguments…

  • GUILTY PARTIES WANTED !, by François Leclerc

    Guest post. Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell In accordance with the predictable script, the bond market is under pressure again. The cost of servicing Spanish and Italian debt has continued to increase as their financing plans move forward in little measured steps. The effect of all this is to place an additional burden…

  • LIBOR: DELAYED INDIGNATION

    Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell The paradox of the 2008 ‘LIBOR scandal’ – in addition to its familiar ring in 2012 – is that, as I alluded to at the time and as I recalled a few days ago, the fraud was well-intentioned for once: the ‘philia’ of Aristotle, the good will exercised…

  • BARCLAYS BEFORE A BRITISH PARLIAMENTARY SELECT COMMITTEE

    Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell I watched the hearing of Bob Diamond live, who had resigned the day before from his post as Chief Executive of the British bank Barclays. Diamond was extremely polite but his tactics in response to the questions posed him were very skilful: the more brutally a British parliamentarian…

  • THE MANIPULATION OF THE LIBOR

    Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell In my Friday morning video (in French), I said that when a pirate (Rupert Murdoch) does business with a ship wrecker (the City of London), it tends to weaken the entire system, and I went on to add that this is particularly the case when the population, which…

  • THIS SYSTEM IS ITS OWN WORST ENEMY, by François Leclerc

    Guest post. Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell In the little game of who won and who lost, what conclusions can be drawn from the recent European council? Interpretations differ widely: some highlight the German Government’s about-turn, who themselves retort that the essence of their position has been preserved intact; others congratulate Mario Monti…

  • THE WINDOWS MUST REMAIN CLOSED, by François Leclerc

    Guest post. Translated from the French by Tim Gupwell By rejecting the quartet’s plan, (which has, moreover, already been watered-down) before the summit has even been held, the German deputy foreign affairs minister, Michael Link has placed himself in the avant-garde of all those opposing any attempt at a compromise. The “iron chancellor’s” hard-line approach…