At Least Europe Knows How To Deal With Dangerous Hedge Fund Managers

Date: Friday, March 19, 2010
Author: Bess Levin, Dealbreaker

In the UK, record their cell phone calls. In Germany, treat them like the terrorists they are. By tailing their cars, and going through their trash.

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.

Intelligence agencies could use techniques honed in the fight against money laundering and terrorist funding if they wanted, said Vanessa Rossi, a senior research fellow in the international economics program at London’s Chatham House.

“Within continental Europe there are those that do think that financial speculators are sort of terrorists,” said Rossi. “In their lexicon it is economic terrorism, so they may view this as more serious than the U.S. or U.K.” The German Finance Ministry didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.