The Lessons from Libor for Detection and Deterrence of Cartel Wrongdoing

In late June 2012, Barclays entered into a $453 million settlement with UK and U.S. regulators due to its manipulation of Libor between 2005 and 2009. Among the agencies that investigated Barclays is the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (as well as other antitrust authorities and regulatory agencies from around the world). Participation in a price fixing conduct, by its very nature, requires the involvement of more than one firm. We are cautious to draw overly broad conclusions until more facts come out in the public domain. What we note at this time, based on public information, is that the Libor conspiracy and manipulation seems not to be the work of a rogue trader. Rather it seems to have been organized across firms and required the active knowledge of a number of individuals at relatively high levels of seniority among certain Libor setting banks. Collusion across firms is at the core of illegal antitrust behavior. The Supreme Court has deemed the pernicious effects of cartels so central to antitrust’s mission that it has stated that cartels are “the supreme evil of antitrust.” The involvement of more than one bank in such a cartel is a significant corporate governance failure due to the coordination that such a cartel would have required among the various cartel members. That the Libor cartel seems to have occurred in such a highly regulated industry after a wave of corporate governance reforms post-Enron and a push to greater internal compliance in the early 2000s is perhaps even more surprising. Yet, the very nature of what may have occurred regarding Libor manipulation, in hindsight, seems rather obvious. The rate did not move for over a year until the day before the financial crisis of 2009 hit. Also, quotes by the member banks that were submitted under seal moved simultaneously to the same number from one day to the next during that time period. Had any member bank that set Libor or indeed any antitrust authority undertaken an econometric screen, they would have detected these anomalies, undertaken a more in-depth investigation and discovered the wrongdoing. This essay explores the use of econometric screens as a tool to improve detection of potential price fixing cartel behavior as a method to police the firm from illegal behavior either by enforcement authorities or via firms themselves

The Lessons from Libor for Detection and Deterrence of Cartel Wrongdoing

In late June 2012, Barclays entered into a $453 million settlement with UK and U.S. regulators due to its manipulation of Libor between 2005 and 2009. Among the agencies that investigated Barclays is the Department of Justice Antitrust Division (as well as other antitrust authorities and regulatory agencies from around the world). Participation in a price fixing conduct, by its very nature, requires the involvement of more than one firm. We are cautious to draw overly broad conclusions until more facts come out in the public domain. What we note at this time, based on public information, is that the Libor conspiracy and manipulation seems not to be the work of a rogue trader. Rather it seems to have been organized across firms and required the active knowledge of a number of individuals at relatively high levels of seniority among certain Libor setting banks. Collusion across firms is at the core of illegal antitrust behavior. The Supreme Court has deemed the pernicious effects of cartels so central to antitrust’s mission that it has stated that cartels are “the supreme evil of antitrust.” The involvement of more than one bank in such a cartel is a significant corporate governance failure due to the coordination that such a cartel would have required among the various cartel members. That the Libor cartel seems to have occurred in such a highly regulated industry after a wave of corporate governance reforms post-Enron and a push to greater internal compliance in the early 2000s is perhaps even more surprising. Yet, the very nature of what may have occurred regarding Libor manipulation, in hindsight, seems rather obvious. The rate did not move for over a year until the day before the financial crisis of 2009 hit. Also, quotes by the member banks that were submitted under seal moved simultaneously to the same number from one day to the next during that time period. Had any member bank that set Libor or indeed any antitrust authority undertaken an econometric screen, they would have detected these anomalies, undertaken a more in-depth investigation and discovered the wrongdoing. This essay explores the use of econometric screens as a tool to improve detection of potential price fixing cartel behavior as a method to police the firm from illegal behavior either by enforcement authorities or via firms themselves

Transiciones a la vida adulta en la era de la globalización. Recorridos de incertidumbre

El presente artículo analiza los trayectos de transición de los jóvenes hacia la adultez en la llamada "era de la globalización". Basándose en los principales resultados de un estudio de ámbito europeo, en el que Portugal participó, se analiza aquí algunas de las principales dimensiones con las que se relaciona la adquisición del estatus de adulto: calificaciones, empleo, familia y género. Finalmente se presenta una tipología del paso a la condición de adulto

Deglacial diatom productivity and surface ocean properties over the Bermuda Rise, northeast Sargasso Sea

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2009. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Paleoceanography 24 (2009): PA4101, doi:10.1029/2008PA001729.Diatom assemblages document surface hydrographic changes over the Bermuda Rise. Between 19.2 and 14.5 ka, subtropical diatom species and Chaetoceros resting spores dominate the flora, as in North Atlantic productive regions today. From 16.9 to 14.6 ka, brackish and fresh water diatoms are common and their contribution is generally coupled with total diatom abundance. This same interval also contains rare grains of ice-rafted debris. Coupling between those proxies suggests that successive discharge of icebergs might have stimulated productivity during Heinrich event 1 (H1). Iceberg migration to the subtropics likely created an isolated environment involving turbulent mixing, upwelled water, and nutrient-rich meltwater, supporting diatom productivity in an otherwise oligotrophic setting. In addition, the occurrence of mode water eddies likely brought silica-rich waters of Southern Ocean origin to the euphotic zone. The persistence of lower-salinity surface water beyond the last ice rafting suggests continued injection of fresh water by cold-core rings and advection around the subtropical gyre. These results indicate that opal productivity may have biased estimates of meridional overturning based on 231Pa/230Th ratios in Bermuda Rise sediments during H1.Support for this research was provided by the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia through the grant BPD/27214/2006 to I. M. Gil

Curating Complexities in Art, Science, and Medicine: Art, Science, and Technology Studies (ASTS) in Public Practice

What does art have to lend to Science and Technology Studies (STS)? Might we see art and its display in museums and galleries as a method of performing STS ‘by material means’? And what roles might STS scholars play in art-science collaborations? Drawing on our experiences with collaborations at the intersections of contemporary art and biology, we explore the similarities and overlapping practices of these knowledge communities and make a series of observations about the potential of the area of Art, Science, and Technology Studies (ASTS) to refigure and complicate the art-science landscape. Our analysis emphasizes the museum as a material public forum and curation as a form of knowing, histories of art and science, and examples of scholarly facilitation and intervention in art-science. We examine emerging patterns in ASTS scholarship and emerging roles for STS scholars as facilitators, participant-observers, curators, and collaborators, particularly in art-science institutions and newly emerging STS and art contexts in Denmark, and specifically, the Medical Museion. Our analysis reveals the persistent third leg of curation, cultural history, or STS as party to collaborations between artists and scientists

A avaliação externa das escolas como processo social

O artigo propõe uma análise crítica sobre os relatórios de avaliação externa como instrumentos com uma papel activo na (re)construção social das escolas. Tem como base empírica uma investigação sobre os contextos institucionais das escolas do ensino básico e secundário em Portugal que aborda a relação entre as políticas educativas, os modelos de organização, os perfis de liderança e o sucesso escolar e versa sobre dois grandes eixos analíticos: uma reflexão sobre uma das dimensões dos relatórios de avaliação externa das escolas – a participação dos vários agentes na vida das escolas; a percepção dos dirigentes das escolas sobre a avaliação externa. A investigação tem por base uma análise de conteúdo dos relatórios da avaliação externa das escolas realizada pela Inspecção-Geral da Educação nos anos de 2007, 2008 e 2009 das regiões de Lisboa e Vale do Tejo, Alentejo e Algarve e um conjunto de entrevistas semidirectivas aos directores e aos presidentes dos conselhos gerais de 20 escolas

La larga sombra del Conurbano. Conflictos y disputas en torno de la "conurbanizacion" en dos ciudades del interior de la Provincia de Buenos Aires

Las ciudades medianas y pequeñas de la Argentina han atravesado en las últimas décadas intensos procesos de crecimiento y heterogeneización. En muchas de ellas, la visibilización de estos procesos se ha expresado en narrativas recurrentes acerca de una “invasión” amenazante por parte de migrantes del Area Metropolitana de Buenos Aires que se condensa en el término “conurbanización”, de fuertes resonancias políticas y morales. Si bien esta narrativa moviliza recursos y tropos casi idénticos en decenas de localidades de la Argentina, su estatuto de evidencia dista de ser homogéneo. Nuestro texto se propone, a partir de un trabajo etnográfico comparado en dos localidades bonaerenses (Villa Gesell y Punta Indio), reconstruir las condiciones de aparición del repertorio de la “conurbanización” como clave maestra de lectura de las transformaciones mencionadas, así como las condiciones de su circulación exitosa y generalizada o, por el contrario, de la imposibilidad de estabilizarlo.As cidades médias e pequenas da Argentina passaram por intensos processos de crescimento e heterogeneização nas últimas décadas. Em muitas delas, a visibilidade desses processos foi incorporada em narrativas recorrentes sobre uma "invasão" ameaçadora por migrantes da Região Metropolitana de Buenos Aires, que se condensa no termo "conurbanização", com fortes ressonâncias políticas e morais. Embora essa narrativa mobilize recursos e tropos quase idênticos em dezenas de localidades na Argentina, seu status de evidência está longe de ser homogêneo. A partir de um trabalho etnográfico comparativo em duas localidades da Província de Buenos Aires (Villa Gesell e Punta Indio), propomos em nosso texto reconstruir as condições de surgimento do repertório de "urbanização" como chave de leitura das transformações mencionadas, bem como as condições de sua circulação bem sucedida e generalizada ou, pelo contrário, a impossibilidade de estabilizá-la.Medium and small-sized cities in Argentina have undergone deep processes of growth and transformation throughout the last decades. In many of them, the visibilization of these processes have brought about recurring narratives about a threateaning “invasion” by migrants from the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires, referred to as “conurbanization”, an expression carrying strong moral and political undertones. Even when this narrative mobilizes almost identical resources and tropes in dozens of settlements throughout Argentina, its status of evidence is far from homogeneous. Grounded in compared ethnographic research in two localities in the province of Buenos Aires (Villa Gesell and Punta Indio) our text intends to reconstruct the conditions for the emergence of the repertoire of “conurbanization” as master key for the analysis of the aforementioned transformations, as well as the conditions for its successful and widespread circulation or, on the contrary, the impossibility to stabilize it

Coccolithophore biodiversity controls carbonate export in the Southern Ocean

Southern Ocean waters are projected to undergo profound changes in their physical and chemical properties in the coming decades. Coccolithophore blooms in the Southern Ocean are thought to account for a major fraction of the global marine calcium carbonate (CaCO3) production and export to the deep sea. Therefore, changes in the composition and abundance of Southern Ocean coccolithophore populations are likely to alter the marine carbon cycle, with feedbacks to the rate of global climate change. However, the contribution of coccolithophores to CaCO3 export in the Southern Ocean is uncertain, particularly in the circumpolar subantarctic zone that represents about half of the areal extent of the Southern Ocean and where coccolithophores are most abundant. Here, we present measurements of annual CaCO3 flux and quantitatively partition them amongst coccolithophore species and heterotrophic calcifiers at two sites representative of a large portion of the subantarctic zone. We find that coccolithophores account for a major fraction of the annual CaCO3 export, with the highest contributions in waters with low algal biomass accumulations. Notably, our analysis reveals that although Emiliania huxleyi is an important vector for CaCO3 export to the deep sea, less abundant but larger species account for most of the annual coccolithophore CaCO3 flux. This observation contrasts with the generally accepted notion that high particulate inorganic carbon accumulations during the austral summer in the subantarctic Southern Ocean are mainly caused by E. huxleyi blooms. It appears likely that the climate-induced migration of oceanic fronts will initially result in the poleward expansion of large coccolithophore species increasing CaCO3 production. However, subantarctic coccolithophore populations will eventually diminish as acidification overwhelms those changes. Overall, our analysis emphasizes the need for species-centred studies to improve our ability to project future changes in phytoplankton communities and their influence on marine biogeochemical cycles.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio