Just when you thought it was safe to throw away your old calendars, it appears to be 2008 all over again. As a group of hedge funds, holding piles of Greek debt, are seemingly playing both ends against the middle with what is essentially default insurance and a win-win profit position .. in Greece's ongoing debt crisis.

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Three of The Current

Greek Debt & Hedge Funds Gaming the System - Yanis Varoufakis

We started this part with the sound of anxiety in the streets of Greece... from freelance reporter Maria Kagkelidou.

Austerity is not only an old Greek word -- it's becoming a new Greek way of life in the wake of sweeping legislation last year aimed at improving the country's finances. But still, the country remains at the centre of the Eurozone crisis, with leaders fretting over its hulking debt.

Greece's main EU backers, Germany and France, want to see the country's private creditors accept a big "haircut'. In other words, accept a loss and forgive half of the 260-billion dollars they hold in Greek debt. But that's too close a shave for some of those creditors. Greece will be at the top of the agenda when global leaders meet tomorrow for the World Economic Forum.

Yanis Varoufakis is an economist who teaches at the University of Athens and the author of The Global Minotaur: America, the True Origins of the Financial Crisis and the Future of the World Economy. He was in Athens this morning.

Greek Debt & Hedge Funds Gaming the System - David Cay Johnston

To learn more about the role of these private hedge funds in Greece's debt crisis, we were joined by David Cay Johnston. He is a Pulitzer-Prize winning investigative journalist who specicializes in economics and tax issues and a visiting lecturer at Syracuse University College of Law and Whitman School of Management. David Cay Johnston was in Rochester, New York, this morning.

Greek Debt & Hedge Funds Gaming the System - Hans Humes

Hans Humes is the president of the hedge fund Greylock Capital Management one of the hedge funds that carries Greek debt. He is also representing creditors in the current negotiations with Greece. He was in Brooklyn, New York.

Related Links:

• Greece Crisis Set to Dominate Euro Talks - Wall Street Journal
• Greek rescue blocked by hedge fund greed - The In dependant
• Factbox: What happens if Greece defaults? - Reuters