I started the Revolutions podcast season about the French Revolution while undergoing my gum grafts. Episode 3.4 is largely about
Jacques Necker, who was put in charge of the Ancien Regime’s (the pre-revolution monarchy) treasury, which was in bad shape. I was surprised to learn that the concept of the “financial wizard” existed even back in the 1780s. Intense income problems? Just send a financial wizard after it!
Necker did some financial wizardry, all right. Chief among his feats was publishing a public budget which showed that the regime actually had a surplus. He did this by classifying a bunch of expenses as “extraordinary” and not including them in the publication. Wizardry!
As we know, there is a lot of scamming you can get away at the top levels of government sometimes.