Neville, what Barclays don't tell you is that modern (fractional reserve) banking is by definition FRAUD. Modern banks are by insolvent - they cannot fulfill their contractual obligations to redeem
all depositor account on demand (aka bank run). They "borrow short and lend long" and earn the spread ie take short term demand deposits and lend for 30 years.
But that is just the tip of the iceberg. The real maker is to create money out of thin air which they charge interest on. Banks do not have to "forgo" consumption to lend money (as they would have you believe), rather they conjure it into existence through an account sleight-of-hand. I repeat,
BANKS CHARGE YOU INTEREST ON MONEY THAT DIDN'T EXIST - THEY CREATED IT OUT OF THIN AIR.
It just gets better, these banks have formed a global cartel through Central Banks and the Central Bank of Central Banks (BIS), and leveraged up this "money out of thin air" further, and placed bets and lent to governments allowing them consistently spend more than they can tax their citizen. If those bets and loans pay off, they take the profit. If the bets & loans go bad, they sell them to the Central Bank - usually at par, the is the classic bailout. The price all citizens pay - increases in prices as symptom of money supply inflation.
So LIBORgate is important, however, it is just another in a long line of manipulations of the monetary system by these private institutions. Enormous power over the populous though monopoly control of money is in private hands. Money, the thing that is extremely important but most people yet very few have even a superficial understanding of what money even is and where it comes from. Why is that?
Modern banking is fraudulent criminal cartel, simply a different form of Mafia family wearing suits and ties bestowing titles upon themselves. The real question is how it managed to get this far - ignorance by the masses is the answer. Why is that?
Ask yourself why the banking & financial industry always seems to have the largest profits, pay their executives the most & have the tallest buildings in the city.
References:
The Mystery Of Banking Murray Rothbard
Modern Monetary Mechanics - FED publication
Here's a series of video's that explain it:
Crash Course Chapter 6: What Is Money?
Crash Course Chapter 7: Money Creation
Crash Course Chapter 8: The Fed - Money Creation
Of course, you should take the entire crash course, but those video's explain the basics.