A marriage of convenience

For some reason, weddings seemed to be on people’s minds over the past few weeks. Along with tying the knot, anniversaries were also a popular subject. While Britain revelled in Will and Kate’s moment in the sun, Greeks had a less pleasant moment of their own to share: a few days before the royal wedding, Greece marked a year since it made an official appeal to the European Union and the International Monetary Fund for an emergency loan package.

Understandably, there was no flag waving or street parties to accompany the one-year anniversary of Greece admitting its political and economic failure. There was no puffing out of chests or swelling of pride to mark the 12 months since Prime Minister George Papandreou accepted that the party was over for Greece and it needed help to pay a bill that would have made even the Windsor’s wince.

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EU should invest in Greece, not just lend it money

Brussels – A restructuring of Greece’s debt or a second bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund coupled with austerity measures and structural reforms will not be enough to ensure the country’s long-term economic future, according to the chief economist at a leading Brussels think-tank who is urging the EU to generate greater investment in the debt-ridden country.

“The key here is to create a positive economic and political future,” Fabian Zuleeg of the European Policy Centre told Kathimerini English Edition. “It is abundantly clear now that simple austerity measures are not enough: they are not going to lead the Greek economy to a higher growth path. If we want to give economic and monetary union a long-term perspective than we need to find vehicles to channel investment from the stronger countries to the weaker countries: true investment, not a transfer – something that will give returns.”

Secret talks, public discussions

Following the frenzied speculation prompted by Friday’s Spiegel Online report that Greece was involved in secret talks in Luxembourg about the possibility of it leaving the eurozone, the only thing that was missing was Finance Minister Giorgos Papconstantinou standing outside the medieval chateau where several eurozone officials were in discussion and telling reporters that no meeting was actually taking place.

The whole episode was poorly handled – at the same time the European Commission was denying any meeting, the Germans were confirming there was one. This only added to the jumpiness that already exists within Greece and other eurozone countries as well as on the international markets.

Restructuring? It’s child’s play

Graffiti by Absent

Anyone who is a parent or has looked after a small child will be familiar with the dreaded moment when a toddler tells you, “I didn’t do anything.” Once you hear these words, it’s a sure bet that you will find food on the floor, toys smashed to pieces or crayon scrawls on the wall. But it’s not just kids that employ these naively transparent methods, politicians are pretty adept at using them too.

It was, therefore, pretty easy to see through the government’s spin doctors this week as they insisted that the issue of debt restructuring did not come up at all during a meeting in Athens between Prime Minister George Papandreou and renowned financier George Soros. Visiting George did not mention the subject even once, government sources told journalists.

Rating the rating agencies

Illustration by Manos Symeonakis

“If we really want to rub their faces in it, then the only way is to increase revenues and for every Greek to pay the taxes they are supposed to. If that happens, then we won’t need Moody’s or anybody else.” In his own inimitable style, Deputy Prime Minister Theodoros Pangalos’s blew open in Parliament on Friday an issue of public debate while displaying all the subtlety of a bulldozer trying to open a safe.

Although he was more forthright than others, the veteran PASOK politician was expressing an opinion that reflected the mood of many voters and MPs. His comments came just a few days after Moody’s, one of the three credit rating agencies that have been observing the Greek economy with the intensity a menacing stalker, downgraded Greece’s debt — already at junk status — by three notches, to B1 from Ba1 and suggested Athens would not be able to repay its debt without some form of restructuring. Moody’s also downgraded six Greek banks in the same week.