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The World’s Most Controversial Interest Rate Is Haunting Us Again

The World's Most Controversial Interest Rate Is Haunting Us Again

Every week, hosts Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway take you on a not-so-random walk through hot topics in markets, finance and economics.

Remember LIBOR? The London Interbank Offered Rate measures the cost of money when banks borrow from each other. It famously blew out during the financial crisis, but for a long time since then it's been dormant. Only lately it's started to creep higher again. On this week's Odd Lots podcast, we talk to Scott Peng, the founder, CEO and CIO of Advocate Capital Management, who warned in early 2008 that there was something fishy about the way the measure was being priced. In the post-crisis period, it was discovered that the rate -- which helps price trillions of dollars worth of other assets -- was being gamed or manipulated by traders. Peng walks us through the history of the rate, what it's telling us now, and what may ultimately replace it. 

 

To contact the authors of this story: Tracy Alloway in Abu Dhabi at talloway@bloomberg.net, Joe Weisenthal in New York at jweisenthal@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Topher Forhecz at tforhecz@bloomberg.net.

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