Reservoir Dogs in policy world

The LIBOR scandal is still spreading, and regulators are now starting to get pulled in like heavy objects towards a black hole. The Bank of England looks careless, following the revelation of emails from the New York Fed. Much of the British establishment is in disarray. The Guardian puts it colorfully:

Only two weeks into the market-rigging scandal and already the economic-policy establishment resembles the final scene of Reservoir Dogs: a bunch of men in suits all blindly shooting at each other.

It is one of those mornings where the world seems a little crazy, especially in the UK. Another British bank, HSBC, has been astonishingly careless over money laundering. That isn't just a financial scandal, by the way. It's also a deep failure by US and UK intelligence agencies, who are supposed to be in business precisely to stop billions of dollars flowing to benefit drug lords and terrorists.

And to add to the catalog of British follies, the Olympic security fiasco looks just idiotic at present. If there are any incidents in coming weeks, it could yet look tragic. The pensions industry there is accused of systematic overcharging and hidden fees. And this is just one day's news.