Much has been said about Germany's woes bailing out Greece. But German business might be partly to blame.
According to Der Spiegel, German companies contributed to the profligacy by bribing the Greeks. German car maker Daimler, for example, paid big bribes to allow vehicle deliveries to Greece. Germany's national railway operator Deutsche Bahn paid bribes to win an underground railway contract in the run-up to the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, paying a six-digit sum to a Greek decision-maker via an adviser.
The Financial Times reports that Europe's biggest railway company has called in the auditors. And of course, Siemens had a slush fund and various other companies covered their tracks with consulting services and tax havens.
Given that the bribing companies were paying off politicians and the Greek government, we can see how they contributed to the crisis that is now destroying Greece. They are complicit in the corruption behind the meltdown.
But American companies are just as guilty. Check out for example the reports of the subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson paying bribes to the Greek state health care system.
And then, of course, there's Goldman Sachs. As I pointed out in this blog
earlier this year, Goldman Sachs was brought in to show the Greeks how to hide their debt and keep it off their books.
If things had been more transparent, this crisis would not have happened because the European Central Bank would have been on to the problem a lot earlier. Goldman Sachs colluded in the cover up and the world is now paying the price.
Business has played a big role in the crisis that threatens to destroy the Eurozone and European currency.
no comment untill now