The Greeks have never managed to stick to the 60 percent debt limit, and they only adhered to the three percent deficit ceiling with the help of blatant balance sheet cosmetics. One time, gigantic military expenditures were left out, and another time billions in hospital debt. After recalculating the figures, the experts at Eurostat consistently came up with the same results: In truth, the deficit each year has been far greater than the three percent limit. In 2009, it exploded to over 12 percent.
Now, though, it looks like the Greek figure jugglers have been even more brazen than was previously thought. “Around 2002 in particular, various investment banks offered complex financial products with which governments could push part of their liabilities into the future,” one insider recalled, adding that Mediterranean countries had snapped up such products.
Greece’s debt managers agreed a huge deal with the savvy bankers of US investment bank Goldman Sachs at the start of 2002. The deal involved so-called cross-currency swaps in which government debt issued in dollars and yen was swapped for euro debt for a certain period — to be exchanged back into the original currencies at a later date.
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Who says America doesn’t produce the worlds best finical engineers?
If we can’t be number 1 at manufacturing, because; little joe six pack wants a living wage, then at least; we can be number 1 at finical engineering because big Joe Bank White Collar wants a 2 billion dollar bonus.
Seems like America’s fiscal conservatives have redefined fairness, integrity, honesty, capitalism, Adam Smith principles ….
you are a fuking idiot #1
#1
The Neocons certainly have redefined that stuff for themselves not Conservatives. Conservatives know you need trust busting to maintain a free market. The DOJ hasn’t seen a monopoly it didn’t approve of in about 3 decades other than Microsoft and in the end they approved of the monopoly anyway.
#2… ummm… your sarcasm detector is broken.
The difference here is Europe has money to pay for it, America has debt. We quit worrying about our debt long ago, hoping nobody notices we have more debt than our entire economy can pay for.
#5 is wrong. Most of the big European countries are in the same debt situation as the US.
Here is a link to prove it.
Another link showing which foreigners hold US debt.
Another good link
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_external_debt
U.S. ranks 19th in external debt per capita.
See, the American capitalist pig is just as bad as the Greek capitalist pig!?
The Greece Gross Domestic Product is worth 357 billion dollars or 0.58% of the world economy. I guess we’re lucky they’re not a ‘super-power’, right?
Sleepy sheeple.
At least Goldman Sachs is an equal opportunity destroyer!
De-regulated international money laundering?
Shocked!Just shocked,I tells You!
So where is the Laissez Faire apologentsia?
Usually They are thicker than flies on shit when these shenanigans make it through the liberal media siphon filter.
Oh right,its “move along Sheeple,nothing more to see here,BTW, We’ve been right all along”!
Wanks,thankers!
It’s like a sport to some of these people.
I begin to understand why bankers and financiers have historically been so feared and hated…
#6 In the Red
Seems like the data is a bit out of date – our current debt is over 12.3 trillion. Meaning we are more like at 85% of GDP. And has every indication of getting much worse.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-to-invest-for-the-debt-bomb-explosion-2010-02-09?pagenumber=1" rel="nofollow">From WSJ:
‘Wake up investors. Are you prepared for the economic anarchy coming after a global-debt time bomb explodes? Are you thinking outside the box? Investing differently? Act now — tomorrow will be too late. ‘