Greece and CDS regulation

"The U.S. made clear it doesn't believe Greece's primary budget problems stem from market speculators." Sounds like a rebuke of a request to ban the CDS market. This also strongly suggests the level of influence that the CDS manufacturers, Wall Street, has within Washington.

Greek PM meets with White House on debt reduction.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou met with Obama yesterday to discuss a European proposal to crack down on speculative trading (see details below) and to outline the steps his country will take to reduce its debt. Papandreou said he didn't ask the U.S. for financial help, which is good because the White House says Greece's problems "can and should" be resolved by the EU. The idea of curbing financial speculation will bediscussed at the next G-20 meeting, though the U.S. made clear it doesn't believe Greece's primary budget problems stem from market speculators.

EU discusses ban on speculative trading.

The European Commission may ban "purely speculative naked sales on credit default swaps of sovereign debt," and will ask for a similar move globally at the G-20 meeting in June. European officials are pushing the U.S. to join in the crackdown on speculators, with Germany's Merkel saying "quick action is needed" and the U.S. should "make a gesture" to curb the trades in question. Though he didn't go so far as to recommend a ban, Commodity Futures Trading Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said in a speech yesterday that there should be new limits on credit-default swaps.