It look like being a long stretch for the G8 at Gleneagles next week. There is poverty, to be made history. There is global warming, to be reversed. And, perhaps, there is capitalism, to be kept safe from hedge funds. Germany's chancellor, Gerhard Schroder, has said that he wants to discuss regulating these funds in an international context, though his peers appear less keen. For the Germans, the hedge-fund issue is not so much about preserving global financial stability or protecting investors-the usual reasons given when talking of tightening supervision of these fast-growing, lightly-regulated investment pools-as about safeguarding beleaguered German companies. It was a shock when, in mid-May, a small London hedge fund, The Children's Investment Fund, forced the departure of the chairman and chief executive of Deutsche Boerse, a German exchange operator. Many asked whether it was right that a minority shareholder-hedge fund or not-should wield so much power. Now Hans Eichel, Germany's minister of finance, and his officials would like to internationalise the debate.
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