Yves here. Get a cup of coffee. This is a detailed account of the long and tortured history of budget fakery in Greece and how it is has been aggressively defended by successive Greek governments. A tidbit from the post: one section is labeled “When revising wrong statistics is treason.”

By Sigrún Davídsdóttir, an Icelandic journalist, broadcaster and writer. She has earlier written on what Icelandic lessons could be used to deal with the Greek banks.

The word “trust” has been mentioned time and again in reports on the tortuous negotiations on Greece. One reason is the persistent deceit in reporting on debt and deficit statistics, including lying about an off market swap with Goldman Sachs: not a one-off deceit but a political interference through concerted action among several public institutions for more then ten years….. CLICK HERE to read the complete article