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Greek PM urges G20 effort to rein in speculators (3/8/2010) Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou on Monday urged the Group of 20 nations to crack down on market speculators, warning that failing to do so could trigger another global financial crisis. "We need clear rules on shorts, naked shorts and credit default swaps. I hope there will be a positive response from this side of the Atlantic to bring this initiative to the G20," Papandreou told the Brookings Institution in Washington. Critics of credit default swaps charge that speculators use the contracts to bet against countries for profit, which can lead bond yields higher and make it prohibitively expensive for debt-strapped countries like Greece to refinance their debt. In a question-and-answer period after his speech, Papandreou blamed a lack of transparency about financial transactions for having aggravated Greece's financial woes. Papandreou said Athens was not asking Europe to rush to the "aid of a reckless country" by helping Greece deal with its budget problems but warned the crisis could cause a domino effect, driving up borrowing costs for other countries with large deficits. "If the European crisis metastasizes, it could create a new global financial crisis with implications as grave as the U.S.-originated crisis two years ago," he said. Papandreou deplored the fact that the international community seemed "impotent" in dealing with complex, interrelated markets and urged the United States to join Europe in a coordinated bid to bring order to them. He is scheduled to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Tuesday during a four-day visit that ends Thursday. Later on Monday, he meets with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
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