There has always been a complicated interrelationship between malfeasance and bad data. Throughout history, the spinners, hucksters, and fraudulent have been motivated to “manage the numbers.” Conversely, bad numbers make it more difficult to find the fraud. I’ve been following the unfolding Libor scandal and Barclays Bank, and still don’t know how far, where, and to what cost this will go. But I do see a way forward in this tight coupling between human nature and the data.