Newsletter writers are using the word Cartel in regards to the Libor rate fixing story. In bold. This is interesting to me because the word cartel carries heavy associations.

What do we think of when we hear the word "cartel"? Latin American drug terrorists. All of the bad guys from the movie Commando. Men with black face paint and AK47s.

The likening of the banks to a Cartel (in the associative sense) is very strong, doom and gloomy. It gives an emotional kick, a moral kick. But if we look at wikipedia, Cartel's are defined as: "a formal agreement among competing firms."

A formal agreement among competing firms. That is accurate, regarding the Libor story. This seems like a clean and accurate usage of the word.