‘Sinister’ German Spy Plan Aimed at Hedge Funds, Analysts Say

March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Germany’s suggestion that it may order spies to track speculators targeting currencies is “sinister and silly,” according to analysts, who said hedge funds in London and New York would be the targets.

Germany’s Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told the Bundestag on March 16 that the country may have to consider ordering “intelligence agencies to set up surveillance of who is getting together with whom for which kinds of speculative processes, and where” to protect the euro.

“I find it sinister and silly, it is a complete overreaction,” said Philip Whyte of the Centre for European Reform, a pro-European Union research institute in London. “There is a certain school of thought in continental Europe that everything is always the fault of hedge funds.” Schaeuble’s comments reflected “a longstanding paranoia about the Anglo-Saxon model of capitalism.”

European politicians blamed speculators after the euro tumbled against the dollar and the cost of insuring Greek government debt rose by a third this year, causing budget cuts that triggered street protests in Athens. Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou and French President Nicolas Sarkozy said that trading in credit default swaps exacerbated the crisis.

Schaeuble said that “speculation is increasingly targeting currencies and countries.” His comments followed a report in Spain’s El Pais newspaper last month that the secret service was investigating “attacks” on the country by unnamed investors.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=azeIiOCglRiM&pos=5

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha...ROFL, LMAO....

 

Just when I thought a government couldn't actually get more stupid and incompetent.

 

speculators, speculators, speculators

politicians are always looking for scapegoats in order to hide their failure.

This is ridiculous. No wonder why hedge funds are moving to Asia or the US.

Europe, the land where politicians put their hand in the sand and debt is swept under the carpet.

The biggest problems with Europe is politicians want to protect the little world they have created and free markets are a threat to this construction.

According to Lagarde, Greece has problems because of speculators. She believes no amount of speculation should be allowed against sovereign states, and default should be inconceivable. She doens't seem to understand you cannot force someone to buy debt whose yield does not properly reflect the risk of default. For her, the solution is to ban CDS. She doesn't even know the way CDS are used.

The Euro going down because of speculators? I don't think so. Check out what you pay for similar goods on amazon.com and amazon.fr and tell me if the euro is not overvalued? How much does it cost to fill your tank in Europe? Europe is way overpriced on a relative basis but a strong euro is essential as Europe's imports are incompressible and priced in dollars: energy!!! Imagine oil back at $100 and the Euro trading at parity with dollar... chaos in europe.
The solution: trying to curb the markets.

Hedge funds and regulation: they hate hedge funds in Europe because they are not regulated and cannot be controlled. It is also synonym of offshore money and therefore presumably reflecting tax avoidance. I can tell you, Sarkozy, Lagarde, Merkel,... they hate hedge funds and the billions they run. They want to put their hands on the hedge funds and curb them, get the offshore cash back onshore, so it can be invested into their failed economies and fund their debt that bears no risk of default.

This is Europe, a rationalist constructivist creation from clueless politicians, an abomination to freedom, a place where everything should be controlled, reported and regulated.

The outcome of such policies will be a retreat from international investors. Why invest in a place that is rigged? There are much better alternatives. Europe is digging its grave.

 

- "Do you have the documents in your possession?
- Yes, but there has been an incident. We 've been forced to "neutralize" Mr S.
-What?
- I repeat, we neutralized Mr S. We evaluated the situation and thought it was the appropriate decision.
-Shit. You had no licence to kill this time.
Tut-tut-tut...."

ROTFLMAO.

 

I hope that any of the countries pushing for this bs type of regulation goes down, I don't care what happens to me in the short term nowadays. It's nothing compared to being a debt slave to corporations.

 

WTF are you talking about?
After what they did with VW can you blame them?

 

Seriously? You think that it was the fault of traders and speculators that Volkswagen went down? ( I assume that's what you mean by VW ) No, there is nothing wrong with trading and speculating on prices by itself. People have been doing this for generations, it is the fault of whoever started this global recession in the first place and we need to find out who they are.

The governments who are targeting these traders, speculators and banks are largely doing nothing more than scapegoating instead of actually looking at the real causes of the crisis. They don't want to accept that they failed miserably and got kicked in the balls while they were down and have absolutely no idea who did it.

 

governments are just fucking retarded

humans, a 1000 years down the road, are going to be laughing at our fucking stupidity for permitting morons, sick motherfuckers and just plain liars to run our lives

 

that's just the pathetic politicians; 'you can't blame it on us, it's the terrorists, it's the other country, it's the previous administration running this country, it's banks, it's traders, it's my dog, it's you wife, it's your kids', no bitch it's actually you, you are the shit of this world

 

1) VW did not go down, it skyrocketed.
2) There is nothing wrong with trading and speculating. But what they did was (an attempt at) rampant, blatant manipulation.
Read up on what happened.