Tuesday, Feb 09, 2010
The plot thickens
Der Spiegel: How Goldman Sachs Helped Greece to Mask its True Debt
Goldman Sachs helped the Greek government to mask the true extent of its deficit with the help of a derivatives deal that legally circumvented the EU Maastricht deficit rules. At some point the so-called cross currency swaps will mature, and swell the country's already bloated deficit.
The bank declined to comment on the controversial deal. The Greek Finance Ministry did not respond to a written request for comment.
Posted by devo @ 09:08 PM (435 views) Add Comment
4 Comments
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1. hpwatcher said...
Good find devo. If true, it's amazing the way that GS have scaled up their operations to include whole countries....this is definitely going to end badly.
2. icarus said...
Doing God's work? Yep, the Greek gods could be pretty devious and self-seeking.
3. rumble said...
Regulation playing catch-up, as it will continue to do. Simpler, effective regulation at the root, or complicated, futile regulation at the edges.
4. devo said...
cf.
Goldman Sachs has downgraded the National Bank of Greece and GPSB. "Greece faces both a liquidity and, potentially, a solvency problem. While we believe that, individually, Greek banks tend to be well-run, the problems they face are outside their operational control," it said.
AEP
9.2.2010