A clique of powerful hedge fund managers meets at a ritzy Manhattan townhouse. There, over a meal of honey-roasted chicken and steak, they hatch a plot to bring the world’s second-biggest currency to its knees. This Oliver Stone-worthy story is, in essence, what’s implied by a Department of Justice probe into the short-euro bets of hedge funds that include SAC Capital Advisors LP, Greenlight Capital Inc., Soros Fund Management LLC and Paulson & Co., according to The Wall Street Journal. But regardless of its Hollywood appeal, the Justice Department’s suggestion that these funds may have colluded to drive down the euro is flimsy at best and absurd at worst, raising the suspicion that Washington regulators are focused in the main on improving a public image severely damaged by their failings during the financial crisis. The chief argument against the collusion charge is that of size: according to the latest survey from the Bank for International Settlements, daily volumes in global currency markets totaled $3.2 trillion. For sure, not all of that is in euros. But the common currency is part of an estimated 37% of all transactions, or about $1.2 trillion, and that’s per day. How […]