Prosecuting Libor – Lessons from Hacking

“He’s wrong,” said Ed Balls, on the Andrew Marr Show, publicly contradicting the regulator, Adair Turner, who previously claimed that cheating the Libor market was not a criminal offence. It was a ridiculous example of how a regulator can’t see the woods for trees, and it was right of Ed Balls to bring clarity.

Adair Turner is an economist and an academic. He can’t be expected to know the law, and we’ve learnt in recent years that we need a tough lawyer to perform the role of regulator. It is therefore extraordinary that his replacement will be Mervyn King, another economist and academic, who also can’t be expected to know the law.