Strategy Wall Street to facilitate issuance of unreliable mortgages in America, and now has aggravated the financial crisis in Greece, undermining the euro and will allow EU governments to hide the size of their debts. While concern over Greece troubled world markets, articles and interviews show that with the help of Wall Street's country is participating in a ten-year attempt to circumvent the rules on debt in the EU. Only one transaction with Goldman Sachs helped to hide the debt from the overseers of Brussels. Even when the crisis was approaching a climax, the banks looking for ways to help Greece to postpone the Day of Judgement. In early November - that is, three months before Athens became the epicenter of the global financial worries - a team from Goldman Sachs, arrived in the ancient city with a very modern supply the Greek government, try to pay their bills, as told by people who knew about the meeting . Bankers led by Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn suggested that the Greek government's financial solution that would postpone the date of repayment of debts health care system in Greece is far into the future, just as homeowners are taking a secondary mortgage to pay off their credit cards. This has been done before. In 2001, immediately after Greece was admitted to the Monetary Union of Europe, Goldman helped the Government of the country billions of dollars to get loans, according to a competent source. This agreement was concealed from the public eye, as seen as a currency trading, rather than loans. Due to this, Greece has managed to follow the rules of the budget deficit in Europe and continued to be live in a big way. Athens did not take the last sentence of Goldman, but in terms of the debt crisis in Greece and the promise of its wealthier neighbors to help, an agreement with Wall Street the last ten years, raised questions about its role in the global financial crisis. As in the case of the U.S. mortgage crisis and the collapse of American International Group, derivatives have played an important role in the increase of debt of Greece. Agreement developed by Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and a wide range of other banks have allowed politicians to mask the additional loans, Greece, Italy and possibly other countries. With the help of dozens of agreements across the continent, the banks gave out openly funds in exchange for government payments in the future. Greece, for example, in the coming years, pledged to pass funds from banks aviasborov and income from lotteries. Critics say such deals because they are not recorded as loans, misled investors and regulators about the debt of the country. Some of the Greek agreements have been named in honor of the heroes of Greek mythology. One of them, for example, is named in honor of the god Aeolus wind. The crisis in Greece is a significant threat to the common European currency, the euro, and economic unity of the continent. Greece, the language of bankers, too big a country to allow it to fail. Greece must be the world $ 300 billion, and that large banks are on the hook most of this debt. Defaulted impact throughout the world. A spokesman for the Greek Ministry of Finance said that the Government met with many banks in recent months, and did not trust any of their proposal. All debt financing is conducted in order to ensure transparency, "she said. Goldman and JPMorgan declined to comment on. Affairs of Wall Street in Europe paid little attention to this side of the Atlantic, but it is subjected to severe criticism in Greece and in magazines such as the German "Der Spiegel". "Politicians want to hold the ball forward, and if the banker can show them to postpone the problem, they readily agreed," said A. Gikah Harduvelis, an economist and former government official who helped write the final report on the accounting policy in Greece. Wall Street did not create debt problems for Europe. But bankers have allowed Greece and other countries to borrow beyond their means, moreover, the agreement was entirely lawful. Few rules govern the process of borrowing money to cover the states, such as military or medical expenses. The market of public debt - the term Wall Street to describe the Government lending - as unlimited, as vast. "If the government wants to deceive, it can do it," said Harry Shinasi, a veteran of the research unit of the International Monetary Fund, engaged in monitoring the vulnerabilities of global capital markets. Banks are willing to use freely the spending of the government. Although Greece has not benefited from Goldman proposal in November 2009, she should still pay the bank approximately $ 300 million as a reward for hosting the Agreement of 2001, according to several bankers who are familiar with this transaction. Such openly documented or undisclosed derivatives add uncertainty to how serious the problem in Greece and other countries that may use similar off-balance sheet accounts. A wave of fear swept over other economic problems the country on the periphery of Europe, making loans for Italy, Spain and Portugal, more expensive. At the same time with all the benefits of European unification, with one currency, there appeared a big problem: countries such as Italy and Greece joined the monetary union with a large deficit, as permitted under the treaty establishing the single currency. Rather than raise taxes or cut spending, governments of these countries is artificially reduced their deficits by borrowing. Derivatives should not be disastrous. In 2001 agreement applied swap. One such tool, called the interest rate swap, can help companies and countries to cope with fluctuations in the cost of credit through the exchange of fixed rate payments for floating, or vice versa. Another type, currency swap, can minimize the impact of volatile exchange rates. But with the help of JPMorgan Italy was able to do much more. Despite continuing high deficits in 1996, derivatives helped bring the budget in Italy by the exchange rate of currency through JPMorgan for the favorable exchange rate, yielding a profit of Italian government. In turn, Italy committed itself future payments, which were not recorded as debt. "Derivatives are a very useful tool," said Gustavo Pigalle, an economics professor who prepared a report for the Council on Foreign Relations on the Italian agreement. "They can damage only if used for the embellishment of the true state of affairs. In Greece, the financial wizardry went even further. By holding a "garage" sale on a national scale, Greek officials have essentially laid the airports and highways of the country to bail out the much-needed money. "Aeolus", a legal entity established in 2001, helped Greece to reduce the debt on the balance of the year. Under the agreement, Greece has received money sredstvav exchange for a guarantee of future landing fees at airports in the country. A similar agreement in 2000 called "Ariadne" and it was to devour profits, which the government received from the national lottery. Greece, however, classify these transactions as sales rather than loans, despite the doubts of many critics. These transactions are challenged in government circles for many years. Back in 2000, European Finance Ministers fiercely debated, whether disclosed derivative agreements with such a system of "creative accounting". The answer was negative. However, in 2002 to conclude such agreements as the "Aeolus" and "Ariadne," which are not reflected on the balance of the state, the EU countries were required to declare such transactions as loans rather than sales. However, more recently, in 2008, Eurostat, the Statistical Office of the European Union, reported that "in some cases, operations to ensure fulfillment of obligations, apparently aimed at achieving concrete results in accounting, regardless of the economic value of these operations." While such tricks in reporting can be helpful in the short term, over time they can be catastrophic. George Alogoskoufis, who became finance minister of Greece after the agreement with Goldman, criticized the deal in Parliament in 2005. Agreement, as said Alogoskoufis, was imposed on the government with large payments in favor of Goldman until 2019. Alogoskoufis, who left his post a year ago, said by e-mail last week that Goldman agreed to revise the agreement to "to restore good relations with the republic." He said that the new conditions for Greece are much better than before. In 2005, Goldman sold the interest rate swap to the National Bank of Greece, the largest bank in the country. In 2008, Goldman helped the bank to sell the swap entity, named "Titlos. But the bank retained the bonds issued by "Titlos", and, according to the financial research firm Dealogic, used them as collateral to borrow even more from the European Central Bank. Edward Manchester, senior vice president of the credit rating agency Moody's, said that the deal ultimately hurt Greece because of its long-term payment obligations. "This swap will always be unprofitable for the government of Greece," he added. Authors: Louise Story, Landon Thomas Jr.., Nelson Schwartz.
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