[exhilaration]

The article is definitely worth reading and I agree the journalist did a great job simplifying the topic. I also liked this section near the bottom explaining the mindset of the traders:

Different financial markets have, over long periods of time, evolved standards of behavior that are not, perhaps, entirely honest in the most traditional sense of the word. To outsiders -- and to some less experienced participants in those markets -- those standards can seem shocking, even criminal. To regular participants, they can seem normal, even admirable.

[cm2187]

And in all fairness if you look closer at any other industry you will find similar grey-ish shady practices.

Planned obsolence in consumer electronics? Intel selling you an i7 for 5 times the price of an i3 when really it is pretty much the same piece of silicon, just with a slightly different design (or some features turned off). Some of the stories I hear in the construction industry are pretty appalling, unsuspecting customers are always ripped off. Pharmaceutic industry? Retiring and repurposing the same molecule to a different treatment to ramp up the price,... Should we talk quality controls in clothing?

Commerce is always inherently a conflict of interests between a buyer and a seller, and what keeps people honnest is competition mostly, and laws that require the seller not to lie about the product or service.

I don't think any of this is specific to financial markets.

[princeb]

those are not even the most egregious examples.

think of something like this: you go to a big box store to buy a bunch of home electronics for a new house. you ask the salesperson to throw in some freebies because you're going to be buying a lot. he knocks off the delivery fee, installation fees, and you push further and ask if you can get some other things, say a handheld vacuum cleaner or a stand fan.

he says "Mate this is the best I can give you, I am no longer making commission on this trade". Or if it's the store manager you are speaking to, he says he's not turning a profit with all the discounts already given.

Really pal? You want to repeat that on a recorded line?

Because if this was the credit market, and if your sales guy said you've got a great price because he paid so-and-so for a security he's selling to you and is not getting much in profit, but in reality he actually paid much lower, he can go to jail [1].

But in car sales, home sales, big ticket items like that, you have all these kinds of folks throwing in a white fib here and there, and they don't get locked up.

whatever, I've made my peace with it. there are people who get away with it and people who don't. some people are born rich and some have to work for it.

this hsbc guy is probably going to get into trouble for what he did. the doj is going all out to stamp out this kind of misbehaviour - and not defending it, lying is a scummy move - because the banks themselves could not do it. but while they're at it, maybe start looking at car salesmen and real estate agents too?

[1] http://www.wsj.com/articles/former-jefferies-trader-jesse-li...