Democratic Underground Latest Greatest Lobby Journals Search Options Help Login
Google

The Biggest Greek CDS Speculator Has Been Uncovered - Culprit Is... Greece!

Printer-friendly format Printer-friendly format
Printer-friendly format Email this thread to a friend
Printer-friendly format Bookmark this thread
This topic is archived.
Home » Discuss » Topic Forums » Economy Donate to DU
 
Joanne98 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-23-10 07:14 AM
Original message
The Biggest Greek CDS Speculator Has Been Uncovered - Culprit Is... Greece!

We have officially moved from a Greek tragedy to a Greek surreal comedy. After nearly a month-long scapegoating campaign in which Greek PM G-Pap said he would spit in the faces and skullf#@* all those who dared to buy Greek CDS (because as we have all been lied to by everyone who doesn't know the first thing about CDS, it is CDS buying not bond selling that drives spreads), with the stupidity reaching as far and wide as the Spanish and German secret services, which said they would spy on CDS traders in London and New York, Greek daily Kathimerini has just uncovered that the biggest speculator, holding 15%, or $1.2 billion of the total $8 billion in Greek notional CDS, has been a firm that operates about 2 blocks away from the parliament building in Athens - the state-owned Hellenic Post Bank (TT)! Luckily poetic justice is about to be served, as every single media outlet tomorrow will apply the same circus monkey treatment to G-Pap and his clownshoes henchmen, not to mention the chorus of obese idiots over at the European Commission who fell for the ruse (speaking of EU idiots, has anyone heard of Jenny Craig relapse patient Joaquin Almunia in the past 2 months, with his "Greece will never demand a bailout" arrogance). While there had been speculation that Greek banks were selling Greek CDS to hedge funds, it had never crossed anyone's mind that a Greek bank could be betting on the collapse of its own sovereign host (especially one which does not own Bernanke's printing press), and that in such size! Frankly this beats even our very own AIG fiasco by orders of magnitude in stupidity.

What an unbelievable joke the intersection of global capital markets and politics has become.

Kathimerini reports that Post Bank bought $1.2 billion of Greek CDS at 135 bps in August 2009 and sold them at 235 bps in December at 235 bps, making a profit of €35 million.

More from Kathimerini:

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/biggest-greek-cds-speculator-has-been-uncovered-culprit-greek-state-controlled-hellenic-post
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
Statistical Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-23-10 07:23 AM
Response to Original message
1. Nice.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
Renew Deal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-23-10 07:47 AM
Response to Original message
2. Greeks have been blaming "Wall Street" and the US
But Wall Street didn't force them to buy this stuff and hide their debt.
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
westerebus Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-23-10 07:49 AM
Response to Original message
3. How else were they going to pay back Golum?
There is no "if, and, or but" in this trade. It was from the inside to start with. Remember just who structured this and provided advice.

All roads lead to Golum. :hi:
Printer Friendly | Permalink |  | Top
 
DU AdBot (1000+ posts) Click to send private message to this author Click to view 
this author's profile Click to add 
this author to your buddy list Click to add 
this author to your Ignore list Wed May 01st 2024, 05:10 AM
Response to Original message
Advertisements [?]
 Top

Home » Discuss » Topic Forums » Economy Donate to DU

Powered by DCForum+ Version 1.1 Copyright 1997-2002 DCScripts.com
Software has been extensively modified by the DU administrators


Important Notices: By participating on this discussion board, visitors agree to abide by the rules outlined on our Rules page. Messages posted on the Democratic Underground Discussion Forums are the opinions of the individuals who post them, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Democratic Underground, LLC.

Home  |  Discussion Forums  |  Journals |  Store  |  Donate

About DU  |  Contact Us  |  Privacy Policy

Got a message for Democratic Underground? Click here to send us a message.

© 2001 - 2011 Democratic Underground, LLC