Greece clearly has become a favorite for speculators since it managed to completely hollow out its economy. Leading Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou, to urge the G20 nations to crack down. He even tried a bit of the frighteners warning that failing to do so could trigger another global financial crisis.

“We need clear rules on shorts, naked shorts and credit default swaps,” Papandreou said in Washington yesterday. “I hope there will be a positive response from this side of the Atlantic to bring this initiative to the G20.”

He added:

“An ongoing euro crisis could cause a domino effect, driving up borrowing costs for other countries with large deficits and causing volatility in bond and currency rates across the world.”

But according to CityAM, the City dismissed any crackdown as unworkable.

Terry Smith, chief executive of broker Tullett Prebon, compared the plans to “someone suffering a major injury and then being supplied with a strip of Elastoplast”.

“Whether you reflect back on the Asian currency crisis of the Nineties… or on 2008, when regulators banned short selling of financial stocks, the crises weren’t caused by speculators,” Smith added.

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Which takes us back to Jim Roger’s approach to the Greek problem.