Janet Tavakoli gives her financial journalism awards for the year. This year, Bloomberg News gets applauded for breaking a series of stories about global currency manipulation, bold collusion, and bank managers and crony regulators getting continually rewarded for their crimes.
Financial Journalism: Best of 2014
By Janet Tavakoli writing at Huffington Post
Excerpt:
Global Currency Manipulation Reportage by Bloomberg News
This year the nod goes to Bloomberg News' Liam Vaughan, Gavin Finch, and Bob Ivry. On November 13, 2014, Finch and Vaughan wrote "'Cartel' Chat Room Traders Boasted of Whacking FX Market." This article about manipulation of global currency markets by traders at Citigroup Inc., JPMorgan Chase & Co., UBS, Barclays and two other banks is part of an ongoing body of work that included Ivry's reportage.
It is worth repeating that the currency market is the largest in the world, includes currency derivatives that add hidden leverage to banks' balance sheets, and this manipulation has been ongoing, after we bailed out the global financial system in 2008 and failed to implement even the most basic regulation, much less create deterrents for malfeasance and fraud.
Bloomberg broke the story in June 2013 ("Traders Said to Rig Currency Rates to Profit Off Clients"). In December 2013, they reported on the "Bandits' Club" in a seminal piece, "Secret Currency Traders' Club Devised Biggest Market's Rates."
See Also:
The Cartel: How BP Got Insider Tips Through a Secret Chat Room
RBS Suspends Bonuses of 18 Traders Amid FX Rigging Fine
