By Heather Horn, The Atlantic Wire
On Tuesday, German authorities announced a ban, starting at midnight, on the naked short-selling of European government debt. The aim, according to The Telegraph, was to “counter speculators that Berlin believes are trying to destabilise the region’s sovereign bond market.” The euro promptly plummeted, while The Telegraph’s Harry Wilson reports that “traders are predicting chaos” as the ban goes through its first full day. This comes only a week after Europe settled its bailout plan for sovereign debt, and this new instability has observers spooked. What happened, what was Germany thinking, and is there any chance this will work?
