International Monetary Fund remains irrelevant to economic recovery: Analyst
Ravi Batra, economics professor at SMU's Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences, talks about the International Monetary Fund and its relevance to global economic recovery.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Ravi Batra, professor of economics from the Southern Methodist University (SMU), to further discuss the issue. The following is a rough transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Let’s expand more on this Libor interest rate scandal in which it affects trillions of dollars in mortgages and other loans. I believe the latest on that is they’re after prosecution, but tell us the span of years that this has gone on and, of course, how much have the banks made off?
Batra: Well, Libor was determined by the bond market until about 2007 then this great recession started. After that, the Central Bank took over and Libor was really no longer determined by the market.
All the manipulation that occurred and cost the banks was from 2000-2007; and now we are finding out that this was really bad for all those people who relied on Libor and set their policies and set their interest rates accordingly....
Press TV: Let’s expand more on this Libor interest rate scandal in which it affects trillions of dollars in mortgages and other loans. I believe the latest on that is they’re after prosecution, but tell us the span of years that this has gone on and, of course, how much have the banks made off?
Batra: Well, Libor was determined by the bond market until about 2007 then this great recession started. After that, the Central Bank took over and Libor was really no longer determined by the market.
All the manipulation that occurred and cost the banks was from 2000-2007; and now we are finding out that this was really bad for all those people who relied on Libor and set their policies and set their interest rates accordingly....