Where Have All the Bankers Gone?

A popular myth persists that there were wholesale suicides after the 1929 Great Crash. Centre-left economic historian, JK Galbraith, skewered this theory when he analyzed the statistics in the wake of the Wall Street Crash, which preceded the great depression.

Nearly a century later, a remarkable uptick in banker suicides has raised questions with at least 6 suspicious deaths in recent weeks. Two men jumped from the top of JP Morgan skyscrapers alone (one each in London and Hong Kong).

[...]

Pending toxicology reports on a third JPMorgan death, and even if we dismiss the death of a Tata motors MD in Thailand, a remarkable number of dubious deaths/suicides have occurred in recent weeks, alongside some unexplained disappearances.

  RT

Hate to see them go.

And about that myth - wholesale suicides?  Hey, six in a few weeks seems like a pretty big deal. 

There are many things wrong with contemporary finance which need fixing (especially those dubious links with government), but the premature demise of fellow humans is not something to celebrate here.

Well, excuuuuuuuuse me.  Who's celebrating?  I just don't feel all that sorry.

Ultimately, all banks have a surfeit of candidates at the top and many talented personnel are squeezed out. Stress driving insecurity builds alongside a gradual realization that outside the (perversely) competitive but cosseting investment bank environment, many managers simply cannot envisage coping. In a world where the taper terror and a decade of dismal government have led us to the brink of ongoing crisis, it is easy to see why sadly, some are driven to take their lives.

Okay. So where does that leave the unexplained disappearances? Did those bankers take the money and run?  Were they "removed" from the possibility of spilling the beans?

However, with the euro crisis festering, emerging markets in chaos and no clear understanding of western economic resilience to tapering...one thing ought to be clear: Bankers have never been more insecure.

Gee, I feel bad for them.

Yet another dark cloud is looming over global banks as officials examine their behavior in the massive foreign exchange market, threatening to deal a new blow to earnings and reputations.

Regulators in the U.S., Europe and Asia are in the early stages of investigating whether traders at the world's top banks manipulated foreign exchange benchmarks to profit at the expense of their clients.

Goldman Sachs (GS, Fortune 500), Citigroup (C, Fortune 500), JP Morgan (JPM, Fortune 500), Deutsche Bank (DB), Barclays (BCS), Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), UBS (UBS) and HSBC (HBCYF) are among the firms in their sights.

  Money, Nov. 2013

More than 20 traders across Wall Street have either been put on leave, suspended or fired since the foreign exchange investigations were formally announced in October.

  Reuters, Feb 5, 2014

And what are they keeping from us this time? All that’s gone before could well have just been the beginning cracks.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Banksters in the News

The European Commission has slapped record fines of 1.7 billion euro on eight major banks for manipulating lending rates that play a key role in the global economy. The penalties will add to already escalating costs for leading global lenders.

The EU fines marks the latest to be levied on banks and financial institutions for making profits or masking their problems by fraudulently rigging the rates that reflect the cost of lending money to each other.

The banks fined are Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, JPMorgan, Barclays, Societe Generale, UBS and RP Martin, the EC said in a statement.

[...]

The fines from the EU are the first time a US bank has been involved in the rate-rigging scandal, as Citigroup has been fined 70 million pounds.

[...]

The Libor rate is seen as an indicator of a lender’s stability. Put simply, the stronger the bank, the lower the interbank lending rate it has.

Barclays, RBS, UBS, Rabobank and brokerage ICAP have already paid out a total of $3.5 billion in fines to settle the accusations related to Libor rate-rigging, the Financial Times reported.

[...]

Manipulation of the Libor rate is one of the largest scandals to hit the finance industry in recent years.

It forced both Barclays CEO Bob Diamond and chairman Marcus Agius to resign. Barclays’ new chief Anthony Jenkins has now insisted that employees sign a “code of honor” to avoid future rigging scandals.

  RT

Code of honor amongst banksters. Like the code of honor amongst thieves, I suppose.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.

Bankster Punishment

Let's see....$2 billion versus $47.6 million.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.