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It borders on the impossible to fake data on this scale and in such amounts. The deficit forecast for 2009 (the year the crisis started) was 3.7 which got revis

It borders on the impossible to fake data on this scale and in such amounts. The deficit forecast for 2009 (the year the crisis started) was 3.7 which got revised to 12.5 percent at the end of that year. Any sufficiently large institution or cooperation that wanted to have access to the real data, could have done so with minimal effort, you can't hide a 10% budget gap. The false data Greece reported to get into the Eurozone was an open secret, I vividly remember it being talked about extensively in Greek cafes after 2001.

iamacynic 9y ago
> It borders on the impossible to fake data on this scale and in such amounts the more cynical among us ahem would probably say that it borders on the impossible to accurately report data on this scale and in such amounts, regardless of intention.
- Tharkun 9y ago
  The cynics would be right. I've seen financial instutions report data using poorly defined regexes on bank statements. Regexes which could easily yield false positives and negatives.
geezerjay 9y ago
> It borders on the impossible to fake data on this scale and in such amounts. It's quite far from being impossible. Actually, it's a widely known fact that a string of greek governments systematically falsified Greece's books, and it actually culminated with Greece going as far as hiring Goldman Sachs to hide their double-digit deficits. > The false data Greece reported to get into the Eurozone was an open secret, That's the old attempt at diffusion of responsibility that often pops up. It's the same old tired argument: once the fact that Greece did in fact cooked its books and falsified their accounting for years, there comes the argument that they still have no responsibility for their own actions because somehow.... others might have known they were falsifying their records? It's a lame excuse, and it never sticks.
- tutufan 9y ago
  This is silly. The idea that Greece was systematically hoodwinking the rest of Europe and no one had any idea is absurd. They're not fools.

iamacynic 9y ago

> It borders on the impossible to fake data on this scale and in such amounts the more cynical among us ahem would probably say that it borders on the impossible to accurately report data on this scale and in such amounts, regardless of intention.

Tharkun 9y ago
The cynics would be right. I've seen financial instutions report data using poorly defined regexes on bank statements. Regexes which could easily yield false positives and negatives.

geezerjay 9y ago

> It borders on the impossible to fake data on this scale and in such amounts. It's quite far from being impossible. Actually, it's a widely known fact that a string of greek governments systematically falsified Greece's books, and it actually culminated with Greece going as far as hiring Goldman Sachs to hide their double-digit deficits. > The false data Greece reported to get into the Eurozone was an open secret, That's the old attempt at diffusion of responsibility that often pops up. It's the same old tired argument: once the fact that Greece did in fact cooked its books and falsified their accounting for years, there comes the argument that they still have no responsibility for their own actions because somehow.... others might have known they were falsifying their records? It's a lame excuse, and it never sticks.

tutufan 9y ago
This is silly. The idea that Greece was systematically hoodwinking the rest of Europe and no one had any idea is absurd. They're not fools.