According to report in Sunday’s New York Times, Goldman Sachs offered to help Greece hide it financial challenges. How? Buy offering to to “buy” Greek government assets that produced cash-flow (such as airport landing fees).  What was really involved was a sale of cash flow for an up-front payment worth far less than the reasonable present value of the cash flow streams.

Greece didn’t take the bait when it was offered by Goldman in November, 2009. But several earlier similar transactions were consummated earlier.

In dozens of deals across the Continent, banks provided cash upfront in return for government payments in the future, with those liabilities then left off the books. Greece, for example, traded away the rights to airport fees and lottery proceeds in years to come.

Critics say that such deals, because they are not recorded as loans, mislead investors and regulators about the depth of a country’s liabilities.

Some of the Greek deals were named after figures in Greek mythology. One of them, for instance, was called Aeolos, after the god of the winds.

More from TheMonkeyBusinessBlog. Update: And even more from Baseline Scenario.