Don't confuse hours 'worked' with working. I know many Greeks that will work when the boss is watching and sit when no-one is around.
Greece given world's lowest credit rating
- Thread starter danmand
- Start date
Don't confuse hours 'worked' with working. I know many Greeks that will work when the boss is watching and sit when no-one is around.
Whenever practical, I buy made in Canada products. Unfortunately for many items we don't even have a choice.
Old Greek proverb: "Beware Greeks bearing gifts, especially if it is a big horse."
New Greek proverb: "Only fools repay their loans."
New Greek proverb: "Only fools repay their loans."
That is a 'people' trait. Not something that is exclusively attached to Greek working folk.
Sara
Confucius Say: The best way to save face, is to keep the lower part of it shut. Or in this case....one who doesn't understand, should keep his fingers off the keyboard.
It's the US's fault AGAIN! Way to Go Goldman Sachs
Probe: Did big U.S. banks contribute to the financial crisis in Greece?
By Neil Irwin and Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 26, 2010
The financial tumult now unsettling Europe came to Washington on Thursday, as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said that the federal government is looking into the role U.S. banks may have played in the Greek fiscal crisis.
The Federal Reserve and Securities and Exchange Commission are seeking information about whether Goldman Sachs and other U.S. firms helped set up financial transactions over the past decade that effectively hid the amount of debt Greece was taking on. Another potential issue is whether banks and hedge funds, by taking big bets that Greece would default, are creating a self-fulfilling downward spiral for the Mediterranean nation.
"We are looking into a number of questions related to Goldman Sachs and other companies and their derivatives arrangements with Greece," Bernanke said, testifying before the Senate banking committee.
Addressing concerns that financial firms have been engaging in trades to bet on a Greek default, Bernanke said that "using these instruments in a way that intentionally destabilizes a company or a country is counterproductive, and I'm sure the SEC will be looking into that."
It was unusual for Bernanke to comment publicly on the Fed's review of the actions of a bank under its supervision. That information is usually confidential, and it was unclear whether his comments were a slip of the tongue or meant more strategically to show that the Fed is being tough on Goldman and other Wall Street firms.
The Fed is not a law enforcement agency, but it is the primary regulator of the largest U.S. banks, including Goldman Sachs. The New York Fed has examiners on site at large firms such as Goldman, and at this stage those staffers are gathering information on the Greek debt deals.
The examiners can demand documents and ask questions of bank staffers, and the Fed is also bringing in experts in the complex derivatives involved in the transactions. Fed bank supervisors would look for actions that put the bank at legal risk or endangered its reputation, either of which could in turn put the bank at financial risk, sources said. It could then order the bank to stop engaging in those actions.
The SEC declined to comment on whether it is investigating the role of U.S. banks in Greek debt. But a spokesman, John Nester, said the agency has been conducting a broad examination of how derivatives known as credit default swaps and other opaque financial products are used, looking for potential abuses and destabilizing effects. He said that the SEC is cooperating with domestic and foreign regulatory agencies in the review.
An SEC investigation could look at several areas related to Goldman Sachs and Greece's debt issuance. One part of the investigation could review whether debt offerings underwritten by Goldman Sachs in 2000 and 2001 misled investors about the country's true financial condition.
Goldman served as investment banker for Greece as the country borrowed billions by entering complex financial contracts known as cross-currency swaps. The contracts allowed Greece to limit the amount of debt it seemed to be taking on to fund its national budget.
Now, with a widening budget deficit, Greece has been struggling to raise money to pay off old debts and continue to fund government operations. In turn, those troubles have prompted fears that some of Europe's other weaker economies might also face difficulties in covering their debts, which could provoke a wider financial crisis and hamstring the global economic recovery.
A Goldman Sachs spokesman declined to comment, saying that as a matter of policy the company does not address questions on legal or regulatory matters. Speaking to a British parliamentary committee earlier this week, Gerald Corrigan, a Goldman managing director, said that the transactions could have been more transparent but emphasized that Goldman was one of several firms involved.
Another part of the investigation would look at an area the agency has been focusing on over the past year: whether speculators are using credit default swaps to manipulate the price that Greece has to pay to borrow money.
That specific concern was raised by the banking committee's chairman, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), in the hearing Thursday.
"We have a situation in which major financial institutions are amplifying a public crisis for what would appear to be for private gain," Dodd said.
There are past examples of the Fed and the SEC working together to examine alleged misdeeds by banks. In 2003, Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase agreed to pay the SEC a combined $255 million in fines for assisting Enron in transactions that helped the now-defunct energy company defraud its investors.
Simultaneously, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York entered into agreements with the two banks that obligated them to improve their risk management and internal controls to avoid such misconduct in the future.
AND SOME POLITICIANs DON"T WANT THE BANKS TO BE PUT UNDER STRONGER REGULATION, EVERYTHING IS JUST PEACHY!
Probe: Did big U.S. banks contribute to the financial crisis in Greece?
By Neil Irwin and Zachary A. Goldfarb
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, February 26, 2010
The financial tumult now unsettling Europe came to Washington on Thursday, as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said that the federal government is looking into the role U.S. banks may have played in the Greek fiscal crisis.
The Federal Reserve and Securities and Exchange Commission are seeking information about whether Goldman Sachs and other U.S. firms helped set up financial transactions over the past decade that effectively hid the amount of debt Greece was taking on. Another potential issue is whether banks and hedge funds, by taking big bets that Greece would default, are creating a self-fulfilling downward spiral for the Mediterranean nation.
"We are looking into a number of questions related to Goldman Sachs and other companies and their derivatives arrangements with Greece," Bernanke said, testifying before the Senate banking committee.
Addressing concerns that financial firms have been engaging in trades to bet on a Greek default, Bernanke said that "using these instruments in a way that intentionally destabilizes a company or a country is counterproductive, and I'm sure the SEC will be looking into that."
It was unusual for Bernanke to comment publicly on the Fed's review of the actions of a bank under its supervision. That information is usually confidential, and it was unclear whether his comments were a slip of the tongue or meant more strategically to show that the Fed is being tough on Goldman and other Wall Street firms.
The Fed is not a law enforcement agency, but it is the primary regulator of the largest U.S. banks, including Goldman Sachs. The New York Fed has examiners on site at large firms such as Goldman, and at this stage those staffers are gathering information on the Greek debt deals.
The examiners can demand documents and ask questions of bank staffers, and the Fed is also bringing in experts in the complex derivatives involved in the transactions. Fed bank supervisors would look for actions that put the bank at legal risk or endangered its reputation, either of which could in turn put the bank at financial risk, sources said. It could then order the bank to stop engaging in those actions.
The SEC declined to comment on whether it is investigating the role of U.S. banks in Greek debt. But a spokesman, John Nester, said the agency has been conducting a broad examination of how derivatives known as credit default swaps and other opaque financial products are used, looking for potential abuses and destabilizing effects. He said that the SEC is cooperating with domestic and foreign regulatory agencies in the review.
An SEC investigation could look at several areas related to Goldman Sachs and Greece's debt issuance. One part of the investigation could review whether debt offerings underwritten by Goldman Sachs in 2000 and 2001 misled investors about the country's true financial condition.
Goldman served as investment banker for Greece as the country borrowed billions by entering complex financial contracts known as cross-currency swaps. The contracts allowed Greece to limit the amount of debt it seemed to be taking on to fund its national budget.
Now, with a widening budget deficit, Greece has been struggling to raise money to pay off old debts and continue to fund government operations. In turn, those troubles have prompted fears that some of Europe's other weaker economies might also face difficulties in covering their debts, which could provoke a wider financial crisis and hamstring the global economic recovery.
A Goldman Sachs spokesman declined to comment, saying that as a matter of policy the company does not address questions on legal or regulatory matters. Speaking to a British parliamentary committee earlier this week, Gerald Corrigan, a Goldman managing director, said that the transactions could have been more transparent but emphasized that Goldman was one of several firms involved.
Another part of the investigation would look at an area the agency has been focusing on over the past year: whether speculators are using credit default swaps to manipulate the price that Greece has to pay to borrow money.
That specific concern was raised by the banking committee's chairman, Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), in the hearing Thursday.
"We have a situation in which major financial institutions are amplifying a public crisis for what would appear to be for private gain," Dodd said.
There are past examples of the Fed and the SEC working together to examine alleged misdeeds by banks. In 2003, Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase agreed to pay the SEC a combined $255 million in fines for assisting Enron in transactions that helped the now-defunct energy company defraud its investors.
Simultaneously, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York entered into agreements with the two banks that obligated them to improve their risk management and internal controls to avoid such misconduct in the future.
AND SOME POLITICIANs DON"T WANT THE BANKS TO BE PUT UNDER STRONGER REGULATION, EVERYTHING IS JUST PEACHY!
They don't call Goldman Sachs the "Evil Empire" for nothing.
BTW: Asia has just surpass Europe in total wealth. 3.3 million millionaires in Asia.
BTW: Asia has just surpass Europe in total wealth. 3.3 million millionaires in Asia.
I find Max Keizer's analyses of the situation in Greece and elsewhere largely convincing. Alex Jones also has some thought-provoking things to say about it. What I am not ready to accept is the idea expressed by Jones and apparently accepted by Keizer that the free market economy is some sort of "force for good" that has been hijacked by economic terrorists. In my view, a deregulated market economy is itself an instrument of economic terror. Naturally, regulation becomes a joke when wealth can guide, alter, or scrap it as it sees fit.
Sara
As to the former if Goldman Sachs violated U.S. Securities Law the SEC should take action.
As to the second does not Greece have any responsiblity, does anyone believe that Goldman Sachs just cooked this up on their own?!
I suspect that economically Europe will be number 4 pretty soon. Asia has already surpassed them and I imagine that South America led by Brazil is not far behind. Heck, Australia with less than 30 million people might also surpass them. It doesn't help that Europe is also depopulating. Maybe the former Eastern Bloc countries will save them.
Germany made tonnes of money selling cars, military weapons, machinery and other equipment to Greece. Not forgetting the bribes that were paid by big corporations to Greek politicians to buy their goods at the expense of the Greek population who have absolutely no trust in their own MP's or any foreign leaders. The EU all these years should have placed more weight on stomping out corruption in European countries. This past decade the EU decided to turn a blind eye and now they continue to give out loans which they will never get back. Who is at fault ? Portugal and Ireland are both in the same boat and the thought of adding Albania or Turkey will just worsen the situation.
Isn't the new SEC head COO of Enforcement, Adam Storch, from Godman Sachs? This should be fun to watch.
One would hope that he takes the oath he took and the trust placed in him seriously. On the other side he is a political appointee - and we all heard plenty on TERB during the pervious administration about "responsibility flows upwards."
Europe is going to heck in a handbasket. The U.K., Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, etc. Except for the Germans, they have no work ethics. Heard on the news that they are hoping the PRC will bail them out.
Yeah, Europe will continue to carry sequel box office hits in various languages of Ocean Eleven, Ocean Twelve, Ocean Thirteen, Ocean Fourteen, Ocean .......
Irish problem is not low productivity and government spending way beyond their ability to pay, but more a banking problem. Irish workers are among the EU’s most productive.
The US is in much better shape. The US has a housing stock problem and a debt problem right now, but it has a young population and a strong work ethic.
The US is going to go through perhaps 10 years of trouble sorting out some of the stupidity in its banking sector, but it is positioned to do well after that. Europe has deeper structural problems.
This may be overly optimistic.
Don't forget Republicans responsible for the stupidity in its banking sector, are still there and looking to still take care of their Bankster pals....:Eek:
