It's all Greek to Wall Street's swindlers

[marmar]

Papandreou Says Speculation May Fuel Spread of Crisis (Update1)
By Shobhana Chandra


March 8 (Bloomberg) -- Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou, drawing parallels with the 1947 fight to contain communism in Europe, called for trans-Atlantic cooperation to combat “unprincipled speculators” who threaten to bring a new global financial crisis.

“Europe and America must say ‘enough is enough’ to those speculators who only place value on immediate returns, with utter disregard for the consequences on the larger economic system,” he said in a speech today in Washington. “An ongoing euro crisis could cause a domino effect, driving up borrowing costs for other countries with large deficits and causing volatility in bond and currency rates across the world.”

Papandreou and other leaders such as German Chancellor Angela Merkel have blamed much of the surge in Greek financing costs on market speculation, rather than its inability to tame the region’s biggest budget deficit. Germany and France are pushing for curbs on “speculators” using derivatives to bet against Greek debt, which will be ready in June, officials in Berlin and Brussels said today.

Papandreou called the market for credit-default swaps a “scourge” that “haunts Greece and all of us.” U.S. and European regulators need to bolster regulations to curtain such activities, he said, or “a small problem could be the tipping point in an already volatile system.” .........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a_iFwvoYMrUA&pos=3