FInance guru Rosa M. Abrantes-Metz shows how statistical technqiues quickly point to financial irregularities.  Libor is a case in point. In early 2008, the Wall Street Journal published a studyshowing that the borrowing-cost estimates banks submitted for the calculation of the benchmark interest rate were bunched much too close together and bore little relation to the banks’ riskiness as reflected in the market for default insurance. Together with co-authors Albert Metz, Michael Kraten and Gim Seow, Abrantes-Metz extended the analysis to show that nonrandom patterns in the banks’ reported borrowing costs started years earlier than the period examined by the Journal and also likely involved coordinated behavior among banks. The studies pointed to the widespread misbehavior that, four years later, is proving to be one of the biggest and most costly financial scandals in history.  Article