Greeks are crooks

[BeBMan]

Is prostitution illegal there?

[Dis]

I think so. I didn't see any when I was there.

[BeBMan]

Be glad, so you still can run for prez

[MarkG]

Most Fun Thread Evar!

[MarkG]

on a slightly more serious note....

"Irregularities" (the word falsification never officially used) in deficit reporting were also revealed for other Eurozone members, most notably Italy and Portugal, with significant revisions imposed. Also, there were arguments about massive "creative accounting" employed by many states in order to meet the deficit criterion for entry into the Eurozone. Even the practice of one-off measures by so many states has been criticised, since in several cases their deficits rose back over 3% soon after the reference year, while big economies like Germany and France seem to defy the rules ever since. Last but not least, changes in accounting method often seriously affected the deficit numbers (Spain and Portugal had, like Greece, marginally exceeded 3% in their reference year for entry, when their deficit was revised according to ESA95).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Financial_Audit,_2004

[Colonâ„¢]

Re: Greeks are crooks

Originally posted by pchang
I just found out that Greece recalculated its GDP by adding in illegal activities such as prostitution and money laundering. This recalculation resulted in an upward revision of 25%.

Do you have a link?

They may just be including the informal economy when calculating GDP. That actually makes a lot of sense since we do are talking about economic activity, just outside of official regulations.

[MarkG]

Financial Times showing the world how to do catchy titles from boring financial news

"Oldest profession boosts Greek output"

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/d2b246a2-4f15-11db-b600-0000779e2340.html

and response from Greek Finances Minister

http://search.ft.com/ftArticle?queryText=Alogoskoufis+&y=0&aje=true&id=061004000995&x=0

To set the record straight, I would like to bring to your attention that of the 25 per cent upward revision of the Greek gross domestic product only 0.7 per cent is expected to be related to activities such as the ones you imply. This accounting practice has been followed by all European Union countries for years. As a matter of fact, the boost in Greek output mentioned in your headline will primarily be the result of the improvement of statistical methods to measure the fast-growing services sector - as is clearly articulated in your story.

[Barnabas]

Greece has a great shipping industry if I recall correctly

Which country is more developed? Greece or Portugal?

I think Greece has more industry

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by Spiffor
Greeks are very creative when it comes to statistics, so that they can fit in the Euro-criteria.

We just call ours 'The City'