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NYT--Wall Street tactics akin to the ones that fostered subprime mortgages in America have worsened the financial crisis shaking Greece and undermining the euro by enabling European governments to hide their mounting debts.

As worries over Greece rattle world markets, records and interviews show that with Wall Street’s help, the nation engaged in a decade-long effort to skirt European debt limits. One deal created by Goldman Squid helped obscure billions in debt from the budget overseers in Brussels.

“Derivatives are a very useful instrument,” said Gustavo Pighead, an economics professor who wrote a report  on the Italian transaction. “They just become bad if they’re used to window-dress accounts.”

In Greece, the financial wizardry went even further. In what amounted to a garage sale on a national scale, Greek officials essentially mortgaged the country’s airports and highways to raise much-needed money.

Goldman Said: "They needed to cook their books and we needed to be on the otherside of that trade."

WB7: Wonder what they told the world about the Greek economy.