In the case of George Soros, the rich really do get richer while the poor get poorer. Let me count the ways hedge fund billionaire has enriched himself through his trading "strategies." Years ago, he broke the Bank of England by wagering against the British pound -- pressuring it in such a way that the England had to devalue the pound. His first billion-dollar payday. Various ploys over the years enriched him further. Then he made billions by wagering that the housing and mortgage markets would collapse in America. A multi-billion dollar payoff again. Caching. Now he is up to his old tricks again: working with other hedge funds to force the euro to crack.

Some heavyweight hedge funds have launched large bearish bets against the euro in moves that are reminiscent of the trading action at the height of the U.S. financial crisis.

The big bets are emerging amid gatherings such as an exclusive "idea dinner" earlier this month that included hedge-fund titans SAC Capital Advisors LP and Soros Fund Management LLC. During the dinner, hosted by a boutique investment bank at a private townhouse in Manhattan, a small group of all-star hedge-fund managers argued that the euro is likely to fall to "parity" -- or equal on an exchange basis -- with the dollar, people close to the situation say.

This is an opportunity...to make a lot of money," says Hans Hufschmid, a former senior Salomon Brothers executive who now runs GlobeOp Financial Services SA, a hedge-fund administrator in London and New York.

It is impossible to calculate the precise effect of the elite traders' bearish bets, but they have added to the selling pressure on the currency-and thus to the pressure on the European Union to stem the Greek debt crisis.