Huff Post - Mark Gongloff, 9/19/12

Interest rates all over the world are mostly made up. That's the verdict of a new study by the International Organization of Securities Commissions, a copy of which was obtained by Bloomberg. It found that more than half of the benchmark lending rates in the U.S., Europe and Asia are "calculated by methodologies that were unclear, not transparent and only rarely subject to specific regulatory standards or obligations." Less than half of all benchmark lending rates, in contrast, were based on actual market transactions.

In other words, the interest rates that affect personal and business loans, and hundreds of trillions of dollars in derivatives contracts around the world, are based on either guesses or lies: Not particularly comforting.

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GFP Note: I've been following the events of Occupy Wall Street's First Anniversary and what I've concluded is that the past weekend was as much about Police as it was about Wall Street and Occupy. Below are some videos and articles that illustrate my point. If you search the internet, you will see that stories of the police presence and arrests dominate the Anniversary coverage.

Journalists Arrested During Occupy Wall Street Anniversary Protests

The Telegraph - AFP, 9/17/12

The Pope's former butler and a Vatican computer technician will go on trial starting September 29 on charges of leaking secret papers that unveiled fraud and intrigue in the Holy See.