Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post

Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post ;.. More or less just how good or bad is the situation ; ..Just how serious is the scale of this fraud? Some say that the amount tied to Libor is $360 trillion, some say $500 trillion, while others put it as high as $800 trillion.

"Manipulating the Libor is a big deal because it affects the cost of money for almost everyone," writes Gretchen Morgenson. Or, as Dylan Matthews puts it, "a bank that mucks with the LIBOR rate isn't just playing around with esoteric derivatives that will only affect other traders: They're playing with the real economy that most of us participate in every day." Robert Reich puts it in even starker terms, calling it a "mammoth violation of public trust," a "rip-off of almost cosmic proportion," and "insider trading on a gigantic scale." Matt Taibbi, who's been on this beat long enough to be hard to shock, writes that "this story is so outrageous that it shocks even the most cynical Wall Street observers." An experienced Wall Streeter tells Taibbi that "it's like finding out that the whole world is on quicksand." Says one official involved in the investigation, "It's hard to imagine a bigger case than Libor."

So, yes, outrage is entirely appropriate. But when I first read this story, I had a somewhat different reaction due to my personal connection to the bank. No, this isn't where I come clean about helping to fix the Libor in my spare time. My story took place in London, when I was 25 years old and had just written my second book. I thought it was ready to be published, but publishers felt differently -- 25 of them rejected it. It was one of the lowest points in my life. So one day, having run out of money, I found myself walking on St James's Street mulling things over -- as in, "maybe I need a different career." I saw a Barclays Bank and had an idea -- the impulsive kind that you wouldn't act on if you thought about it too much. I went in and asked to see the manager. We sat down and, armed with no collateral but a bit of chutzpah (or naiveté -- there's a fine line), I explained the situation and asked him for a loan. He thought it over and gave me a loan. His trust in me actually changed my life, since it allowed me to keep going for another 13 publisher rejections... and one "yes." His name was Ian Bell and he, and Barclays Bank, have always had a special place in my heart (I still send him a Christmas card every year).