Greece considers legal action against financial market operators

May 16 (Bloomberg) -- Greece is considering taking legal action against U.S. investment banks that might have contributed to the country’s debt crisis, Prime Minister George Papandreou said...
“Greece will look into the past and see how things went,” Papandreou said. “There are similar investigations going on in other countries and in the United States. This is where I think, yes, the financial sector, I hear the words fraud and lack of transparency. So yes, yes, there is great responsibility here."... 
In the days leading up to the May 10 announcement of a loan package worth almost $1 trillion to halt the spread of Greece’s fiscal woes, European Union regulators were examining whether speculators manipulated the prices of bonds and equities and contributed to the crisis.
The Committee of European Securities Regulators said on May 7 it was investigating “exceptional volatility” in the markets and would work with other regulators, including the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, as part of a coordinated clampdown.
European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said May 6 that he was concerned about speculation in bond markets using credit default swaps. “By first buying the CDS and then trying to affect market sentiment by going short on the underlying bond, investors can make large profits,” he said.
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Comment: My dear friends in the speculating community all too often have a false sense of power. Let's call it the "Master-of-the-Universe-Syndrome". Yet when it comes to power, the triumph of politics does still hold. It is not my task to lament, it is not my task to please, it is my task to tell the truth as I see it. From the beginning I felt that the attack on Greece and then on the euro lacks fundamentals and is evil-spirited. Even more importantly: I feel that this speculation won't succeed for the players and in the end we shall have a blow-back with more regulation, stiffer controls and not less but more political influence. What we will get is a hugs setback for liberty and free markets.