LIBusted
Suddenly, once some sunshine is beamed in their general direction, a host of banks clear their throats and look down at their shoes before reporting LIBOR closer to the "shadow interbank money rate market." The revelation was so dramatic that it apparently caused a 5.4 magnitude earthquake in Illinois this morning.
This spurs many questions, one of which is not "Gee, I wonder if they were artificially depressing LIBOR," since the answer to that is actually painfully obvious. More interesting is who runs the membership committee for the various "shadow markets" I have increasingly heard about and why haven't I gotten an invitation to apply?
There's this shadow interbank money rate market, there's the "shadow economy," "shadow government statistics," and "shadow prices." I feel like there is this whole hidden shadowy world to discover. Very depressing. I never got to go to the "no girls allowed" treehouse club either.
And, frankly, it's kind of a bummer. Now that it has been exposed, the Shadow LIBOR market will vanish.
LIBOR Surges After Scrutiny Does Too [WSJ]