The following genuine conversation was overheard yesterday on the tube. A man in his twenties was flicking through the Metro. His friend, also in his twenties, glanced over at the front page and said,
“That’s Bob Diamond!”
“Who?” asked Man A.
“The Barclays chief executive. You know.”
Man A frowned at the paper.
“I don’t know the origin of this scandal”.
“He says the Bank of England told them to fix the Libor.”
“What’s the Libor?”
“It’s, like, the interest rate that banks use to lend to each other. They made it artificially low”.
“So that must have been great for the borrowers, right?”
“No, it was just to make their profits look bigger.”
Man A considered this.
“Apparently it’s going to be sunny at the weekend”.
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