The mismanagement of public affairs has been widespread and, to make matters worse, some of these countries faked their financial data. For their part, the EU's bureaucrats have been slow in sharpening their pencils and in watching carefully. The fact that the euros interest rate is also fixed by the European Central Bank (ECB) makes it impossible for country-by-country devaluations. Angela Merkel aptly stated that, it would be a disgrace if it turned out that banks which already pushed us to the edge of the abyss were also party to falsifying Greek statistics. Politics have much to do with both the astronomical size of Greece's debt and with an orderly resolution of the crisis. George Papandreou, a sociologist by training and also chairman of Socialist International, likes to blame speculators, including hedge funds, for the punishment that the country's bonds have taken in financial markets.