> Mr Johnson objects, saying that this would mean breaking the rules for setting Libor, which required him to put in rates based only on the cost of borrowing cash.
There's a huge difference between "hey, this form is asking for my home phone number, I can't put cell phone number in!", and "I'm going to go to prison for years for this!". If Johnson had a clue that the behaviour being discussed would lead to prison time (and it has) he'd have made a very different objection.
> Also, it's been news to me that the Bank of England was actively pushing for the LIBOR rates to go down
Well, it hadn't been proven, but it's been talked about for years. Eg, this:
You have to be the world's biggest idiot to believe anything a huge corporation like that says. They have entire propaganda units to make them look as good as possible.
There's a huge difference between "hey, this form is asking for my home phone number, I can't put cell phone number in!", and "I'm going to go to prison for years for this!". If Johnson had a clue that the behaviour being discussed would lead to prison time (and it has) he'd have made a very different objection.
> Also, it's been news to me that the Bank of England was actively pushing for the LIBOR rates to go down
Well, it hadn't been proven, but it's been talked about for years. Eg, this:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfina...
Of course, whether you trust Barclay's about this is another question. :)