Tag Archives: cartel

Telegraph: RBS traders boasted of Libor ‘cartel’

Sometimes it’s criminal.  The Telegraph reports on the bank cartel that manipulates Libor: RBS traders boasted of Libor ‘cartel’ Senior traders at Royal Bank of Scotland boasted about operating a “cartel” that made “amazing” amounts of money by rigging interest … Continue reading

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The Webbs on the standardisation movement

Here’s what the Webbs had to say about how the standards movement fitted into their plans for A constitution for the socialist commonwealth of Great Britain (1920). It renders people “nominally free” but “virtually compelled” – praised as “expert control” without “democratic control”. … Continue reading

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Boring, but only for 5′ 56”. Not a whole career.

“It’s not the accreditation body that mandates accreditation. It’s the government.”  @4′ 16” Go on, watch it.  It badly needs some views. Don’t miss the admission in part 2: “EU regulation…in effect says that each country will have one accreditation … Continue reading

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A missing jewel

The next 20 scandals. So you won’t be shocked. Hm.  Matthew Parris picked 20 upcoming scandals from the air.  Not surprisingly he omitted the obscure accreditation one. Compare it with the diamond cartel: “Fun, fun, fun. I’d like to add … Continue reading

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An uninvestigated pandemic

Why are accreditation bodies treated with less suspicion than pharmaceutical companies?  Laboratory accreditation is promoted as source of confidence and quality by accreditation organisations.  These exist in an international quality cartel which prevents the price competition between members that normally destroys … Continue reading

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European hypocrisy on cartels

Price competition between members normally destroys cartels.  Therefore accreditation bodies such as UKAS are allotted territories through national mutual recognition arrangements.  This is a nod to the idea of ISO standardisation and objective third-party assessment.  But the real purpose is to … Continue reading

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