Beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds

Americans should be ashamed. We're amateurs at corruption. Ok, well, Wall Street excepted. Anyway, the Greeks are pros. Michael Lewis, of Liars Poker and The Big Short writes Beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds in Vanity Fair.

In 2001, Greece entered the European Monetary Union, swapped the drachma for the euro, and acquired for its debt an implicit European (read German) guarantee. Greeks could now borrow long-term funds at roughly the same rate as Germans—not 18 percent but 5 percent. To remain in the euro zone, they were meant, in theory, to maintain budget deficits below 3 percent of G.D.P.; in practice, all they had to do was cook the books to show that they were hitting the targets. Here, in 2001, entered Goldman Sachs...

• Tim Bray reviews The Big Short.
• The rats have certainly gotten into Greece
• Michael Lewis’ Big Short and Our Appetite for Apocalypse on Radio Open Source