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.
Goldman made hefty fees, you can be quite sure of that. And if their tricky scheme means disaster for Greece, oh well. They can always short Greek debt. If they haven’t already.
In similar news,
Banker Liverpudlian stew disguises CDO scraps as tasty morsels
In the same way that Liverpudlians disguise overripe meat and vegetables by cooking them to mush in a stew called scouse, investment banks, rating companies and plain old market peer pressure turned the investments inside most CDOs from inedible chunks of the financial markets into bite-size morsels palatable to pension fund trustees.
They’re just parasites, aren’t they? They contribute little or nothing, take much, and if they kill a host, no biggie.