Eurostat to Look Into Greece's Debt Swaps

[Joanne98]

Source: WSJ


BRUSSELS—Europe's statistics office is seeking information from the Greek government concerning reports Greece used complicated currency swaps overseen by Wall Street investment banks to hide its mounting debt levels, a European Commission spokesman said Monday.

"Eurostat wasn't aware of this matter," said Amadeu Altafaj Tardio, spokesman for economic and monetary affairs. "We need information about what kind of transactions took place, if they did, and what was the effect on the government accounts in Greece."

The spokesman said currency swaps are a legitimate government management tool "if they are calculated from observed market rates."

The allegations emphasize the need for the statistics body to deepen its powers of scrutiny of government economic data, he said.

Newspaper reports Monday said Greece arranged a deals with investment bank Goldman Sachs Group Inc. that pushed repayment of its spiraling debts far into the future.


Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704431404575066973097686194.html

[rurallib]

1. This one could get bad ...........

[dipsydoodle]

2. Good news.

Infact excellent news.

[HeresyLives]

3. How is this 'good news'?

[Demeter]

5. The Beginning of the End of the Bubble and the Fraud

until both stop, we simply can't expect anything to get better.

[HeresyLives]

7. Well a world crash and massive depression

won't do anyone any good.

[dipsydoodle]

9. Neither would a repeat

so best bring these rogue cowboys like Goldman Sachs under tight control while the going is good.

[HeresyLives]

10. Well the trick is in removing the bandaid.

Do you take it off slowly and gently, or do you rip it off all at once?

Goldman Sachs is the least of our problems. It's much bigger than them.

[ut oh]

11. Unfortunately that's what it may take

for the system to ever get truely fixed...

[dipsydoodle]

8. That its being looked in to -.

the Goldman Sachs connection.

[Skink]

4. Didn't everybody do that?

[JackRiddler]

6. Probably.

So when any part of it is investigated, there's always hope the fraud might unravel.

Of course, it may also merely serve as a demonstration that rules are different for small countries.