Barclays on the Edge of Collapsing?

As you read this, remember that Lehman Brothers failed in 2008 because they were unable to get short term financing in the repo market.  This is where the banks borrow money every 24 hours to go gambling.  They are not only vampire squids, they gambling addicts.  We should define Harmful Gambling and make it punishable by life in prison.

So if they weren't on the verge of collapsing, then they were just being corrupt.  Thieves.  Swindlers.  Vampires sucking the life out of economies.

BREAKING: Barclays Revealed Libor Scandal Four Years Ago

By Jonathan Weil Jul 6, 2012 3:05 PM PT

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How's this for prescient?

Check out the first couple of paragraphs of a Bloomberg News article from May 29, 2008, underthe headline, "Libor Banks Misstated Rates, Bond at Barclays Says." (Yes, the article ran more than four years before Barclays's $453 million settlement last month with U.S. and U.K. authorities for manipulating Libor.) The story begins:

About Jonathan Weil

Jonathan Weil joined Bloomberg News as a columnist in 2007, and his columns on finance and accounting won Best in the Business awards from the Society of American Business Editors and Writers in 2009 and 2010.

More about Jonathan Weil

Banks routinely misstated borrowing costs to the British Bankers' Association to avoid the perception they faced difficulty raising funds as credit markets seized up, said Tim Bond, a strategist at Barclays Capital.

"The rates the banks were posting to the BBA became a little bit divorced from reality," Bond, head of asset-allocation research in London, said in a Bloomberg Television interview. "We had one week in September where our treasurer, who takes his responsibilities pretty seriously, said: 'right, I've had enough of this, I'm going to quote the right rates.' All we got for our pains was a series of media articles saying that we were having difficulty financing."