(V): well congratulations, you successfully changed the subject again, start off with doctors then go to dentist and end up with bankers. But wait, you forgot business owners and ceo's.

jealousy is a pathetic thing to live with

Vikings: Never heard of making comparisons, doesn't mean you've changed the subject.

"jealousy is a pathetic thing to live with"

Is it? What does it feel like???

Iamon lyme: "...the cost of exorbitant malfeasance awards."

Not malfeasance awards, I meant to say malpractice awards.

Vikings: Jules never could stay on point.

omneycare Is Bankrupting Massachusetts – A Lesson On The Dangers Of Obamacare http://patriotstatesman.com/2011/05/romneycare-bankrupting-massachusetts_lesson-on-the-dangers-of-obamacare/

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is to pay $3bn (£1.9bn) in the largest healthcare fraud settlement in US history.

The drug giant is to plead guilty to promoting two drugs for unapproved uses and failing to report safety data about a diabetes drug to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The settlement will cover criminal fines as well as civil settlements with the federal and state governments. The case concerns the drugs Paxil, Wellbutrin and Avandia.

Deputy US Attorney General James Cole told a news conference in Washington DC that the settlement was "unprecedented in both size and scope".

GSK, one of the world's largest healthcare and pharmaceuticals companies, admitted to promoting antidepressants Paxil and Wellbutrin for unapproved uses, including treatment of children and adolescents.

The illegal practice is known as off-label marketing.

The company also conceded charges that it held back data and made unsupported safety claims over its diabetes drug Avandia.

In addition, GSK has been found guilty of paying kickbacks to doctors.

"The sales force bribed physicians to prescribe GSK products using every imaginable form of high-priced entertainment, from Hawaiian vacations [and] paying doctors millions of dollars to go on speaking tours, to tickets to Madonna concerts," said US attorney Carmin Ortiz.

As part of the settlement, GSK agreed to be monitored by government officials for five years.

Prime Minister David Cameron has announced a full parliamentary inquiry of the banking sector following the Barclays rate-rigging furore.

He told the House of Commons the manipulation of the Libor interest rates had been a "scandal".

The review will run alongside a narrower inquiry specifically into the Libor market, also announced on Monday. The comments follow news the Serious Fraud Office is considering whether to bring criminal charges.

In addition, Barclays will conduct its own "root and branch review" after receiving a fine of £290m ($450m) over the Libor affair.

Mr Cameron said the full parliamentary committee of inquiry would be headed by the chairman of the Treasury Committee, Andrew Tyrie. "This committee will be able to take evidence under oath, it will have full access to papers and officials and ministers including ministers and special advisers from the last government," he said.

Isn't greed a deadly sin?

(V): "Isn't greed a deadly sin?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zi6wNGwd84g

Iamon lyme: It could easily be argued that those on state assistance are greedy for other people's money.

Artful Dodger: I don't have a big problem with people who recieve that assistance. Tax revenue pays people whose jobs are to funnel that money down to pay other people, until it reaches those who are payed to administer that assistance. I don't know how long or extensive the management chain is, but I'll wager that's where most of that money disappears.

(V): All sins are deadly.

Greed, jealousy, envy.. they are all related to coveting, so yes.. it's a sin.

If someones prosperity is larger than yours, and it bothers you, then you are experiencing prosperity envy. It's nothing to be ashamed of. Just be happy with what you have.

Iamon lyme: I know... I've been happy for years. I'm one of the lucky ones where the good Lord didn't install a jealousy gene.

... Or is it a mix, my philosophical look at life includes the principle that the universe always provides what you need. Time and time again this has proven to be true.

But... lets get back to the subject.

OMG!! a three BILLION dollar FINE.

Banks fixing interest rates which, could have caused some to have gone over the edge financially through the rates being rigged. Are they in the class action being started in America? What happens to those who may have lost their homes through the illegally higher rates that were charged??!!??

(V): I don't know about the interest rate problem across the pond. We have our own problems here.

Iamon lyme: Uhhhhhhhhhh It's in your country as well. Hence the fines levied by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the US Justice Department.

I would have thought the fines and that a class action is to take place would have been news worthy, I know Fox covered it!!

(V): "I would have thought the fines and that a class action is to take place would have been news worthy"

I'm not a banker, so news about banks doesn't exactly float my boat. Besides, you have a worse banking problem to worry over in your own neck of the woods...


Insurance giant’s move follows Siemens’ decision to remove E500m from Societe Generale
LAST UPDATED AT 16:31 ON Wed 21 Sep 2011
WHAT HAPPENED?
The insurance market Lloyd's of London has followed in the footsteps of other large institutions and pulled its deposits from some European banks, concerned at their ability to weather the deepening debt crisis gripping the eurozone.

Finance director Luke Savage told Bloomberg: "If you're worried the government itself might be at risk, then you're certainly worried the banks could be taken down with them.

"We have a very conservatively positioned balance sheet," Savage said, noting that Lloyd's holds around £800m of its assets in cash, which it has stopped depositing with banks in Europe's peripheral economies, though he declined to name the countries or banks.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
The Lloyd's announcement follows yesterday's news that German engineering giant Siemens had removed €500m from the French bank Societe Generale two weeks ago and placed the money in a European Central Bank (ECB) account, apparently alarmed by the financial health of SocGen going forward.

As panic increases within European financial circles at the prospect of a Greek default, which could see banks across the continent lose billions of euros, companies which use these banks to hold their short-term deposits are growing increasingly concerned that they could lose their money should a bank go to the wall.

Certain large companies such as Siemens which also operate their own banks are allowed to deposit money with the ECB - the German industrial group now has between €4bn and €6bn with the bank.

WHAT NEXT?
If more institutions follow the lead of Lloyd's and Siemens and begin to remove their money from banks across Europe, those lenders will have fewer funds to fall back on in the event of a Greek default.

Such a shock would soon transmit itself across the world economy, and would see the current debt crisis transform into a global event as banks stop lending to one another.



Why does anyone bother reading this crap? It's depressing.

Iamon lyme: lol The banks activities effect everyone who uses one.

In the UK the news of the banks committing fraud is good news ... in some respects...

... it means those who were defrauded will be able to seek recompense. Some people in the UK (quite alot of people) have already been able to claim back monies from a fund set aside by the banks totalling £7,600,000,000

Greece lied about it's economy and went through years of non payment of tax problems that no-one chased. That's why they are broke.

Why is Libor so important?

The Financial Services Authority (FSA) says Libor and Euribor are "benchmark reference rates fundamental to the operation of both UK and international financial markets".

The prices of trillions of pounds worth of financial transactions around the world are set according to Libor. Among them, financial swap deals worth £225tn are indexed to Libor, and loans totalling £6.4tn, the British Bankers' Association says.

Does Libor affect my mortgage?

Some mortgages are directly linked to the Libor rate. But even for those that aren't, it is used by banks to help them set the interest rates that they charge some of their own mortgage or loan customers.

The Libor rate is vital because it is followed far more closely by the banks than the interest rates set by the Bank of England, because the Libor rate is a far more accurate appraisal of real world circumstances.

What happened at Barclays?

Staff at Barclays filed misleading figures for interbank borrowings they made.

Firstly, between 2005 and 2008 - and sometimes working with traders at other banks - they tried to influence the Libor rate - so as to try to boost their profits.

Then between 2007 and 2009, at the peak of the global banking crisis, Barclays filed artificially low figures. This was to try to hide the level to which Barclays was under financial stress.

How could the actions of Barclays' traders affect me?

As already discussed, the Libor rate is determined from the banks telling the British Bankers' Association their own interbank lending rates. It goes into a pot with figures from other banks to work out the daily rate.

Any change in that main rate could feed through the financial system to make loans, mortgages or credit card interest rates more expensive, or cheaper.

One economist stated today that 5 billion people were affected by this rigging of Libor rates

And they didn't do it alone!

Iamon lyme: Must be a liberal. He has two faces. lol

Artful Dodger: Some have only one face.

http://www.jonathanrosenbaum.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/mars_attacks2.jpg

Well they pass Newt Gingrich test.. they don't speak French!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kuzu6iS036Q

I always thought a NEWT was a kind of amphibious animal/fish

Newton Leroy Gingrich

http://i.qkme.me/35sbas.jpg

Great day on the job

**Edited to shorten URL and get page back to normal size

MissDelish:

Marshmud: I believe that beats the old tale of being a cuckoo clock cleaner pay wise... which was one hour a day with one hour for lunch.

.. what a joke!!

Another joke.... our current government (Conservative majority led coalition) wants to hold a parliamentary inquiry rather than a judge led inquiry.

Why should we trust a party that gets regular big donations from the banks and other financial institutions?

Thankfully, Scotland has laws that make prosecution of the bankers much more easier.

Maybe some of those towns and cities in the USA who've gone bankrupt can sue?

(V): "One economist stated today that 5 billion people were affected by this rigging of Libor rates"

http://pamelaannedavis.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/marceau.jpg?w=500

(V): "How could the actions of Barclays' traders affect me? As already discussed, the Libor rate is determined from the banks telling the British Bankers' Association their own interbank lending rates. It goes into a pot with figures from other banks to work out the daily rate. Any change in that main rate could feed through the financial system to make loans, mortgages or credit card interest rates more expensive, or cheaper. One economist stated today that 5 billion people were affected by this rigging of Libor rates"

Really? 5 billion people out of a total world population of...

http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html

Iamon lyme: well 5bil is a mere drop in the ocean in comparison to those numbers. Perhaps that (V) has it wrong.

MissDelish: 5 bil is close to 2/3 of all the people in the world.

Printing statements like what that one economist said can grab our interest and sell news papers, but if you think about what it really means...

"One economist stated..." that nearly 2/3 of all the people in the world "were affected by this rigging of Libor rates"

It's like the butterfly effect. If you accidentally kill a butterfly, it can affect the lives of thousands of people.. or millions of people.. or billions.. or trillions...

I killed a bug the other day. The possible repercussions are mind boggling.

Iamon lyme: Yes... really. Millions of transactions each day are affected by the Libor rate GLOBALLY. It affects loan rates, some mortgage rates, the rates banks lend to each other.

IE Trillions of pounds (even more in dollars) every single day.

....well this "butterfly" is big.... big enough to cause a several class action legal cases. The investigation JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, and UBS.

With more banks to follow more than likely.... Unless they do a Murdoch and burn all the evidence!!

MissDelish: 5 billion is smaller then 313 million???


....Since when?

(V): 313,917,341 is US population.

World population is 7,025,368,983. five billion is smaller than that, but not by much.

16:16 UTC (EST+5) Jul 10, 2012

Iamon lyme: Yes.. I know. That is why I questioned the statement of...

"well 5bil is a mere drop in the ocean in comparison to those numbers."

It's like some weird reversal of the European billion!

Iamon lyme: thank you LamonLyme....a case of someone not reading the appropriate statements properly :)

MissDelish: I kept telling people Lemon Lime is smarter than I and so we can't be the same person. I don't even know what you guys are talking about.

MissDelish: Yes you did.

Current Population Clock
World 7,025,477,767
04:38 UTC (EST+5) Jul 11, 2012

Over a hundred thousand new people since yesterday.

Iamon lyme: and

Number of abortions per day: Approximately 115,000 incl illegal ones (world wide)

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_many_abortions_take_place_a_day#ixzz20I0IegPR

Artful Dodger: This was my usual reaction to someone if they suggested we abort one of our babies...

http://justjacqui2.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/angry-baby-750837.jpg

You'd be surprised how often this was suggested, and for no other reason than for our own "convenience".

.. I'd be more worried about the living ones if I were in the USA.

5 kids lost each day to Child abuse, the worst record in the industrialized world.

Millions of reported cases of abuse and/or neglect each year... Texas being one of the worst due to State spending cuts in the services. you know how it works....

... Cut taxes to bring in the rich, that funds to look into child abuse cases and support are slashed is of no importance to the Conservative Gov'nor Rick Perry.

.. they can't vote!!

Iamon lyme: the abortion debate will never be settled until it's abolished. And like it or not, under Obama care we are paying for abortions.

hahahah
http://i.imgur.com/Y5HPw.jpg

(V): "I'd be more worried about the living ones..."

That's absurd.How many dead babies do you think are killed by abortions? Abortion IS child abuse.

Artful Dodger: If this goes to trial, can you imagine the judge keeping a straight face? I think Maus should keep the money. It was Soupolos idea in the first place, he talked Maus into it...

Three evenings a week for six months, and now Soupy wants his money back. No way.

Iamon lyme: Crazy. The unborn ARE living even as a zygote. By the time they get aborted, many of them get ripped from limb to limb (literally) or scaled in an acid solution. Like catching babies with pitchforks except you can't see the horror.