Unstructured Finance

By Katya Wachtel

Yes, Germany and Greece have been in a war of words in the unfolding crisis over the latter’s membership in the euro zone, but this afternoon the two nations face off in a different (and far more entertaining) way: they go head-to-head in the European Championship quarterfinal.

As Reuters’ Alexander Hudson reports from Poland, the setting of tonight’s more-than-just-a-game battle, “When Greece take the football field in the Polish coastal city of Gdansk… the honor of the nation is at stake.” Greece, by the way, has never beaten Germany on the soccer pitch.

Closer to home, with the NBA season now officially over – congrats to our Miami Heat fans – there’s a little more time for some weekend reading…

From New York Magazine:

Cleary Gottlieb attorney Lee Buchheit has the cure for debt-laden Greece, Spain and Italy, writes Jessica Pressler.

From Dealbook:

Is lying different from stealing in matters of securities fraud, Steven Davidoff asks in his column, comparing the crimes of Enron’s Jeffrey Skilling with those of convicted insider traders Rajaratnam and Gupta.

By Katya Wachtel

On Sunday, voters in Greece’s parliamentary election gave market-watchers the result they wanted.

But in the minds of many money managers, those election results are little more than a band-aid for the euro zone’s deep and complex debt problems, and their attention is focused further West. Many hedge fund managers say it is Spain – the euro zone’s fourth largest economy and the recent recipient of a 100 billion euro bank bailout – that is the real concern for the stability global financial markets.

“Greece has been off the radar screen since March as far as I am concerned,” said Robert Koenigsberger, founder and chief investment officer at $3.2 billion investment manager Gramercy. “When everyone went to bed on Sunday night, I doubt they were expecting to wake up and find that Spain would be 25 basis points wider. People probably thought there would be a risk-on trade that could give Spain some relief.”