7-year-old story sheds new light on Greece-Goldman scandal

NY Post ^ | February 18, 2010 | KAJA WHITEHOUSE

[Scanian]

Everyone’s up in arms about Goldman Sachs’ role in helping Greece hide its mounting debt – especially the European Union.

But a story making the rounds online shows that the whole affair was widely known about as far back as 2003. It’s raising questions about whether the EU’s outrage is all just a dog-and-pony show.

The story, published by Risk magazine nearly seven years ago, also suggests that the potential dangers of the strategy Goldman helped Greece employ were clear as the whole thing was happening.

The EU says Greece has until Friday to disclose how it used complex currency swaps to hide national debt.

[driftdiver]

I’m convinced that European power brokers are chin deep in the economic problems worldwide.

[Brilliant]

Gimmee a break. They set the rules sand write the debt but somehow it’s the fault of the guys who bought it? The first step in healing is to recognize your problem. The EU isn’t there yet.

[GreenLanternCorps]

“It’s raising questions about whether the EU’s outrage is all just a dog-and-pony show. “

This is a question? Of course it is!

The EU is so flawed and corrupt, that no financial information from them is trustworthy. From the expences of it’s officials, to it’s internal bookkeeping, to it’s overall financial health, the European Union is built on fibs, obfuscations, and outright lies. When it collapses it is going to be an unholy mess...

[HiTech RedNeck]

It did seem the currency switch-over was a bit facile.

[Travis McGee]

"The logic of the conspiracy theorists in this regard is, of course, impeccable: Goldman alumnus Josh Bolten runs the White House, while his former boss, Hank Paulson, runs the Treasury. They both speak regularly to former Treasury Secretary Bob Rubin, now over at Citigroup, who ran Goldman before Paulson and who keeps Paulson and Bolton dangling like puppets on a string. They all supposedly touch base with the heads of the Italian and Canadian central banks—both Goldman alumni—and with Robert Zoellick, head of the World Bank, ex Goldman. What's more Paulson is now getting his advice on how to handle the crisis from Ken Wilson, the recently retired Goldman partner and financial-institutions M&A banker, who Paulson just recruited to Washington to help him out. Already at Treasury were Goldman alumni Dan Jester, Anthony Ryan, David Nason and Bob Hoyt, the department's general counsel. And—the conspiracy crowd can't help but point out—Neel Kashkari, 35, a former vice-president at Goldman who Paulson recruited as assistant secretary of international affairs in 2006, has just been appointed—by Paulson—to run, on an interim basis, the new $700 billion bailout fund."

~~William Cohan, "Does Goldman Sachs Really Rule the World?" October 2008