– Greek Government Bonds Jump 12% As Buyback Means Early Christmas For Hedge Funds (ZeroHedge, Dec 3, 2012):
Greek Government Bonds (GGBs) jumped by over 12% today to over EUR40 – by far the highest post-PSI – as fast money floods the limited size illquid market to front-run the Greek buyback. Every day that goes by means less and less benefit for the Greek people as the discounted price of buying back the debt – with all of the money that Greece doesn’t have, goes up. This is a perfect example of greater-fool-theory at work as everyone knows that if this price gets too high, the Greek government (via Troika) will (should) reneg on the buyback which will cause GGB prices to plunge back towards zero. What many misunderstand is that the buyback crystalizes the losses for banks that currently carry this worthless paper on their books at Par and garner the carry (and accruals) and thus in true European fashion, the unintended consequence of this action lines the pockets of fast-money hedge funds along for the short-ride and drains any pretense of capital from the Greek banking system.
