Greek Financial Audit, 2004
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Greek Financial Audit, 2004
The Greek Financial Audit was a 2004 investigation into the true extent of Greece's public finances. It examined government revenue, spending and the level of Greek government borrowing. Background Within the European Union, entry into the Eurozone depends on the applicant nation meeting certain economic criteria. Measures such as budget deficits and public debt levels are assessed, as well as the inflation situation and the stability of the national currency exchange rate of a European Union member state. Requirements include a budget deficit below 3% of gross domestic product (GDP), and debt below 60% of GDP, or if above, declining. Up until 1994, Greece recorded very high deficits, for some years above 10% of GDP. During the late nineties, according to the figures submitted by the Greek government to the European Union, Greece's high budget deficits were significantly lowered. In 2000, given a deficit below 3% of GDP in 1999, Greece was accepted as the 12th member of the Europea ...
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Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to the northeast. The Aegean Sea lies to the east of the Geography of Greece, mainland, the Ionian Sea to the west, and the Sea of Crete and the Mediterranean Sea to the south. Greece has the longest coastline on the Mediterranean Basin, featuring List of islands of Greece, thousands of islands. The country consists of nine Geographic regions of Greece, traditional geographic regions, and has a population of approximately 10.4 million. Athens is the nation's capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city, followed by Thessaloniki and Patras. Greece is considered the cradle of Western culture, Western civilization, being the birthplace of Athenian ...
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Goldman Sachs
Goldman Sachs () is an American multinational investment bank and financial services company. Founded in 1869, Goldman Sachs is headquartered at 200 West Street in Lower Manhattan, with regional headquarters in London, Warsaw, Bangalore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Dallas and Salt Lake City, and additional offices in other international financial centers. Goldman Sachs is the second largest investment bank in the world by revenue and is ranked 57th on the Fortune 500 list of the largest United States corporations by total revenue. It is considered a systemically important financial institution by the Financial Stability Board. The company has been criticized for a lack of ethical standards, working with dictatorial regimes, close relationships with the U.S. federal government via a "revolving door" of former employees, and driving up prices of commodities through futures speculation. While the company has appeared on the 100 Best Companies to Work For list compiled by ''Fortune'' ...
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Eurozone Crisis
The euro area, commonly called eurozone (EZ), is a currency union of 19 member states of the European Union (EU) that have adopted the euro (€) as their primary currency and sole legal tender, and have thus fully implemented EMU policies. The 19 eurozone members are Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain. The eight non-eurozone members of the EU are Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Croatia, Denmark, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and Sweden. They continue to use their own national currencies, albeit all but Denmark are obliged to join once they meet the euro convergence criteria. Croatia will become the 20th member on 1 January 2023. Among non-EU member states, Andorra, Monaco, San Marino, and Vatican City have formal agreements with the EU to use the euro as their official currency and issue their own coins. In addition, Kosovo and Montenegro ha ...
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Economic History Of Greece
The economic history of the Greek World spans several millennia and encompasses many modern-day nation states. Since the focal point of the center of the Greek World often changed it is necessary to enlarge upon all these areas as relevant to the time. The economic history of Greece refers to the economic history of the Greek nation state since 1829. Earliest Greek civilizations Cycladic civilization Cycladic civilization is the earliest trading center of goods. It was extensively distributed throughout the Aegean region. Minoan civilization The Minoan civilization emerged on Crete around the time the early Bronze Age, it had a wide range of economic interests and was something of a trade hub, exporting many items to mainland Greece as well as the Egyptian Empire of the period. The Minoans were also innovators, developing (or adopting) a system of lead weights to facilitate economic transactions. Despite this Minoan civilization remained, for the most part, an agriculturally d ...
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2004 In Greece
Events in the year 2004 in Greece. Incumbents Events January February March * March 7 – Greek legislative election, 2004, Kostas Karamanlis, nephew of Konstantinos Karamanlis has been elected Prime Minister of Greece defeating George Papandreou. * March 25 – The Olympic Flame was ignited at Olympia, Greece and it took it across the continents and return to Athens, Greece. April * April 20 – Adjutant to the President of the Hellenic Republic, Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Georgios Dritsakos becomes Colonel. May June July * July 4 – The Greek national football team won Euro 2004. August * August 13 – Athens host the 2004 Summer Olympics, beginning with the opening ceremony, and making the first city to bring the Olympics back to their birthplace. ATHOC President Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki is the first woman to make a welcome home speech followed by the IOC President Jacques Rogge to make a speech and addressing to the athletes. And the Greek President Konstan ...
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Government Audit
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is a means by which organizational policies are enforced, as well as a mechanism for determining policy. In many countries, the government has a kind of constitution, a statement of its governing principles and philosophy. While all types of organizations have governance, the term ''government'' is often used more specifically to refer to the approximately 200 independent national governments and subsidiary organizations. The major types of political systems in the modern era are democracies, monarchies, and authoritarian and totalitarian regimes. Historically prevalent forms of government include monarchy, aristocracy, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, theocracy, and tyranny. These forms are not always mutually exclusive, and mixed governme ...
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Politics Of Greece
Greece is a parliamentary representative democratic republic, where the President of Greece is the head of state and the Prime Minister of Greece is the head of government within a multi-party system. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the Hellenic Parliament. Between the restoration of democracy in 1974 and the Greek government-debt crisis the party system was dominated by the liberal-conservative New Democracy and the social-democratic PASOK. Since 2012, the anti-austerity, democratic socialist party Syriza has taken the place of PASOK as the largest left wing party, with their first election victory in January 2015. The judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The Constitution of Greece, which describes Greece as a "presidential parliamentary republic", includes extensive specific guarantees of civil liberties and vests the powers of the head of state in a president elected by parliament. The Greek governmental structure is similar ...
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European Sovereign Debt Crisis
The European debt crisis, often also referred to as the eurozone crisis or the European sovereign debt crisis, is a multi-year debt crisis that took place in the European Union (EU) from 2009 until the mid to late 2010s. Several eurozone member states (Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Spain, and Cyprus) were unable to repay or refinance their government debt or to bail out over-indebted banks under their national supervision without the assistance of third parties like other eurozone countries, the European Central Bank (ECB), or the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The eurozone crisis was caused by a balance-of-payments crisis, which is a sudden stop of foreign capital into countries that had substantial deficits and were dependent on foreign lending. The crisis was worsened by the inability of states to resort to devaluation (reductions in the value of the national currency) due to having the Euro as a shared currency. Debt accumulation in some eurozone members was in part due t ...
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Greek Financial Audits 2009–2010
Audits of Greece's public finances during the period 2009–2010 were undertaken by the EU authorities. Since joining the Euro zone, Greece's public finances markedly deviated from the debt and deficit limits set by Stability and Growth Pact. Against this backdrop, a 2004 external audit exposed creative accounting practices understating the problem, putting the EU authorities on alert thereafter. In 2009, the Greek government-debt crisis developed, and the EU authorities suspected again a lack of credibility in its book keeping, hence the audits. This caused political and financial market turmoil. For instance, it reignited a controversy about Greece's off-market swaps contracted with Goldman Sachs in 2001. The accounts for the period 2006–2009, including debt and deficits levels, were regularized. The lasting effects were institutional changes in Greece and at the EU level in the area of fiscal data. There remains, nonetheless, an ongoing controversy about methodological iss ...
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Fakelaki
''Fakelaki'' or ''fakellaki'' is the phonetic transliteration of the Greek word φακελάκι. It means "little envelope" but is also used in Greek popular culture as a jargon term referring to the bribery of public servants and private companies by Greek citizens in order to "expedite" service. According to this practice, sums of money are stuffed in files and passed across the desk to secure appointments, documents approval and permits. Dynamics The Greek term "fakelaki" is close to the notion of tip in meaning, but it may also refer to specific ''tariffs'' demanded by government officials to bypass procedure. As of mid-2011, one in four employed Greeks worked for the government. Fakelaki is also connected to a work culture that perceives the various documents issued by authorities (for example a driving license) as "papers" needed to pay a price "to buy". Fakelaki is illegal, but its continuing presence in Greek life remains a problem. Extent Transparency International, ...
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Letter To The Editor
A letter to the editor (LTE) is a Letter (message), letter sent to a publication about an issue of concern to the reader. Usually, such letters are intended for publication. In many publications, letters to the editor may be sent either through Mail, conventional mail or electronic mail. Letters to the editor are most frequently associated with newspapers and news magazines, however, they are sometimes published in other periodicals such as entertainment and technical magazines and #Academic, academic journals. Radio station, Radio and television station, television stations may also receive such letters, which are sometimes read on the air, particularly on news commentary broadcasts or on talk radio. In this presentation form the letter to the editor can also be described as viewer mail or listener mail, depending on the medium. Subject matter The subject matter of letters to the editor vary widely. However, the most common topics include: * Supporting or opposing a stance take ...
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Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikkei, with core editorial offices across Britain, the United States and continental Europe. In July 2015, Pearson sold the publication to Nikkei for £844 million (US$1.32 billion) after owning it since 1957. In 2019, it reported one million paying subscriptions, three-quarters of which were digital subscriptions. The newspaper has a prominent focus on financial journalism and economic analysis over generalist reporting, drawing both criticism and acclaim. The daily sponsors an annual book award and publishes a " Person of the Year" feature. The paper was founded in January 1888 as the ''London Financial Guide'' before rebranding a month later as the ''Financial Times''. It was first circulated around metropolitan London by James Sherid ...
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