Ever wonder why Goldman Sachs has never been penalized for cooking Greece's books?
"The cherry on the top the current head of the ECB, President Mario Draghi, was actually head of European operations for Goldman Sachs when its executives, that is Draghi's underlings cooked the Greek books".
This was a comment from Guardian CIF. For anyone one interested in the continuing Euro crisis, there is an excellent discussion about the crisis at Guardian CIF.
Here's a few comments I found particularly interesting.
SonofNyeBevan:
Response to tiredofwhiners, 11 February 2012 10:12AM
To put it bluntly, you have little or no idea about banking, where the money comes from, and ultimately, where the money goes to.
First and foremost you fail to differentiate between sovereign debt, that is bonds, and private debt, that is credit extended to businesses and individuals.
Further, and given your ignorance, I suggest you look at Basel, Basel II and Basel III - this forms the basis of modern international banking since the late 1980's and encourages banks to over extend themselves, be this in extending loans/ holding debt - also see the risk and reward allocated to asset classes, particularly of the triple A variety - namely, look at both CDO's and Sovereign debt and how this constitutes part of a banks minimum capital allowance - the cash required to operate in other words.
Since the end of the Cold War in 1991 there has been an explosion of global debt, both private and public. This debt explosion could only occur under a fractional reserve banking system whereby the banks themselves are allowed to magic money out of thin air - this is not real money, it is fantasy money otherwise known as a giant Ponzi Scheme, one aided and abetted by the banks, global supervisory bodies, the IMF, World Bank, WTO and rating agencies.
By understanding how international banking/ international finance work after 30 years of neoliberal economics just look at Basel, the shadow banking system and international bodies overseeing/facilitating this movement.
Its the same story time after time, starting with Pinochet's Chile, then other Central/South American states, before moving to the UK in 1976, Asia in the 1980's and those countries that joined the EU in the 90's.
Neoliberalism, that is rent extraction to give it its precise name, has resulted in the pauperisation of entire countries for the benefit of at most 2% living within those countries - obviously overseas investors have benefited hugely.
Before posting again, do a little research, visit websites that are not affiliated to the neoliberal crusade and actually get a feeling of what is actually at stake before posting.
Currently what's at stake is a 'Peoples Europe', a Europe sold out/captured by proponents of neoliberlism who care nothing about the pernicious effects of their prescription bar their own bank balance sheets.
Merkel, Sarkozy and Cameron are a part of the problem, as is the IMF, EC and ECB - I'd really like to see any of these individuals or institutions eat take their own prescribed medicine, still, the gravy train continues for the elite, that is why Brussels, Westminster, Paris and now Berlin are so corrupt.
Its the system thats at fault, and to call it capitalistic is a travesty to capitalism.
BandraBoy:
Not long to go now, most of Greece's foreign liabilities have been shifted from private sector balance sheets on to public sector balance sheets and so the delaying of the inevitable has achieved its purpose-Soc Gen, BNP Paibas and Deutsche Bank etc are safe and taxpayers, not shareholders, will be screwed when Greece inevitably defaults.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/feb/10/greece-euro-crisis-continues?commentpage=1#start-of-comments
= new reply since forum marked as read
I seem to have said that before 
. They knew, they downgraded and speculated against.
The Almighty Markets dictate and the people suffer.
Goldman Sachs profits were at a record high in 2011...hmmm..