NOT KNOWING HOW MANY EMPLOYEES YOU HAVE.

NOT KNOWING HOW MANY EMPLOYEES YOU HAVE. One of the things accountants do is keep track of things, such as assets—or employees. The Greek government did without a count of employees. There were a lot of off-the-books job-creation programs. Lewis quotes the Greek finance minister: “The Ministry of Agriculture had created an off-the-books unit employing 270 people to digitize the photographs of Greek public lands. The trouble was that none of the 270 people had any experience with digital photography. The actual professions of these people were, like, hairdressers.” Lewis quotes an IMF investigator who asks how you can cut public sector employees when you don’t know how many you have to start with.