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29 Apr, 2010 06:31

Hedge funds and banks intend to devour modern civilization – journalist

Financial markets were in turmoil on Wednesday after the International Monetary Fund warned that more countries could be sucked into Greece's mounting debt crisis.

The euro hit a one-year low against the dollar as Spain joined both Greece and Portugal in having its credit rating slashed.

This has led to European leaders finally acknowledging the gravity of a downward financial spiral set off by Greece.

The talk now is of a bailout package for Athens worth €100-120 billion over three years.

However, there is the fear that Europe could still fail in tackling its deficit crisis which means it could spread to the US and cause a second wave of the economic crisis.

Investigative journalist Webster Tarpley stressed that a possible second wave of a crisis is much less a matter of economic fundamentals than it is a commitment of a group of hedge funds and banks to a kind of wolf pack attack of sovereign debts of a series of countries.

“They use derivatives to do these attacks. They use credit default swaps to do it,” Tarpley said, adding that credit default swaps are being used against Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy.

Tarpley believes that Great Britain‘s position is also very vulnerable.

According to the journalist, credit default swaps could even be used against the United States.

“You can create a great deal of panic with a very small push and then you can bring down the bonds of a city or a state,” he said.

Tarpley reminded that the Treasury of California is now trying to investigate a case of security fraud, whether GP Morgan Chase, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, Citigroup and Barclay’s Bank are double dealing. They are suspected of marketing and selling the bonds of California and at the same time labeling them “unreliable” and suggesting protection by suggesting buying credit default swaps from them, just like in the case of Goldman Sachs.

“Either the US and other nations would defend themselves against these predatory hedge funds and banks or wolf packs of banks and hedge funds will attempt to attack and destroy the debt of sovereign states. And that would more or less would bring the system of modern states to an end – and civilization with it, I’m afraid.”

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