Times Online – Charlie McCreevy, the European Internal Market Commissioner, said yesterday that hedge funds had been particularly active in troubled structured credit markets, but absolved them ofany blame for this summer’s financial turbulence.
Conceding that many hedge funds and their “wealthy private or institutional investors†may have incurred heavy losses in recent months, he maintained that this was no reason for regulators suddenly to intervene.
“Financial markets function on risk. I do not criticise those who make fortunes when times are good. I’m not going to shed any tears now if there are losses,†he told the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
As MEPs debated the consequences of the events sparked off by the sub-prime mortgage crisis in the US, Mr McCreevy insisted: “As much as some people want to demonise hedge funds, they are not the cause of the difficulties in the market.â€Â
