The Hypo Real Estate bank, nationalized by Germany in 2009, made a miscalculation by mistaking a plus for a minus. This means the institution is worth 55.5 billion euros more than previously calculated. This lowers Germany’s sovereign debt for 2011 by 2.6 percent.
The tabloid Bild (October 31) comments:
“The Germans of all people, considered the world over as the epitome of reliability, clearly cannot count. The Germans of all people, who wanted to help the Greeks construct solid financial management, confuse profits and losses. The disaster at the [state-owned] junk bank FSM shows in addition: state-run banks don’t manage their assets any more carefully than the disgraced private bankers. The term ‘bad bank’ – a bank for bad debts – fits perfectly here: an incompetent, lowest-quality bank, and that’s that. As delightful as the sudden windfall may be, the loss in trust is far greater.”
Eric Koch’s book, The Weimar Triangle, is available at Indigo-Chapters and in your local bookstore. 
All banks make huge mistakes, but nationalised banks are run by civil servants who make political decisions not market decisions. The largest bank in France is run by a civil servant with impeccable academic credentials but not banking experience. That bank owns oodles of Greek bonds, a political decision.
It is with many enterprises as with striking fire; we do not meet with success except by reiterated efforts, and often at the instant when we despaired of success.
A splendid quotation! A quick Google search finds it attributed to Mme. Francoise D’Aubigne de Maintenon (1635 – 1719), French writer and consort, mistress of Louis XIV.