Ponzi World?

In the mid-2000's, the world witnessed the implosion of a real estate Ponzi scheme, primarily based in the United States, where millions of investors were bilked by way of an industry-wide, wholesale fraud wherein virtually worthless mortgage assets were bundled and sold to them as if they were grade A investments.  One bank later admitted to the US Congress that they were shorting this rancid market in one part of their operations, while selling the same products to little old ladies out another door as rock solid investments.  

The financial implications of this were serious - millions of investors lost hundreds of billions of dollars; significant "blue chip" corporations disappeared in a flash; governments and central banks took on trillions of dollars in new obligations as private greed was socialized; the world entered into a period of recession, and the effects on the world's banking industry are being felt even today.

Since then we have learned that...

...well, forget Enron, South Sea Bubbles, Tulips, Bre-X, LTCM, Worldcom, the original Ponzi Scheme, Nortel, and a host of other scandals and schemes that have plagued the business world for centuries...

Since the sub-prime mortgage debacle of the mid-2000's, we have learned that the LIBOR (London Interbank Offered Rate) rate was illegally manipulated for DECADES - at least since 1991 before being discovered in 2014 - potentially adding hundreds of billions to the cost of borrowing everywhere, including to the cost of about every mortgage worldwide throughout this period of time.

Think about this for a moment.  How is it possible that literally hundreds if not thousands of people were not either fully or at least partially "in the know" about this scheme, in some cases for decades?  In fact, some people may have spent their entire careers manipulating this rate and reaping the ill-gotten gains before they retired.

The implications of the schere magnitude of the LIBOR scandal have not been thoroughly explored as yet.  They are serious.  It used to be that Ponzi schemes were the exception to the rule of a basically honest and dependable international banking community.  The schemers and creeps have always existed, but they were never considered to be more than a very tiny minority of people working in a basically honest industry.  

In light of LIBOR, it may be that we have to face the reality that this industry has changed. For a much larger proportion of this workforce than ever before, honesty now appears to be a mugs game.  In short, the only rule for many in this industry now appears to be simple - if there is money to be made, it is to be made no matter what one has to do to make it.

To repeat - the LIBOR fraud went on for at least 23 years.  What else are these people up to that we haven't discovered yet?