Baltimore vs. Wall Street

Our view: The city's effort to recover millions in losses stemming from a rate-rigging scheme by the world's largest banks is a first step toward restoring confidence in the financial markets

What the revelations mean to the average citizen in Baltimore is that the city may have lost millions of dollars that otherwise might have been spent on improving its public schools, lowering property taxes and keeping recreation centers and fire stations open. More generally, the alleged rate-rigging scheme lowered the value of public and private pension funds and dealt a massive blow to the public's trust in the market and in the capacity of large financial institutions to police themselves. If the biggest banks were secretly rigging the market to enrich themselves at their clients' expense, how can anyone feel certain they're not being set up for a fleecing?

At the very least, the banks' alleged misconduct is as serious a threat to investor confidence as the insider-trading scandals that have rocked the market over the last decade. It may be years before Baltimore can recover the losses it claims as a result of the fraud, but it surely it is right to begin the process of trying to root out what looks to be a pattern of corruption at the very heart of the global financial system.