A Ponzi by any other name

Page last updated at 11:16 GMT, Wednesday, February 8, 2012 - 16:16 EST

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Business Spectator:

Georgios Chatzimarkakis, a German-Greek member of the European Parliament, just had a splendid idea. In an interview with tabloid newspaper Bild, he suggested a new name for Greece. From now on the country should only be called ‘Hellas’ in every language. The old Greece, famous for corruption and sleaze, badly needed a better image and a new name might help, the politician argued.

Chatzimarkakis certainly knows a thing or two about the importance of names and titles. He recently lost his PhD after severe cases of plagiarism had been detected in his doctoral thesis.

However, what sounds like a stunt from a desperate backbencher with an image problem is not uncommon in Europe. Policies too tainted to sell to a suspicious public are simply given another name. And clearly Long-Term Refinancing Operation sounds better than ‘Ponzi scheme’, let alone ‘money printing’.

Yet money printing is what the European Central Bank’s interventions in markets have come down to. After the first round of showering banks with nearly €0.5 trillion of cheap cash in December, an even bigger wave of central bank money is expected by the end of February.

While EU politicians are haggling over an extra few billions for Greece and Portugal, the ECB’s interventions make such sums look like small beer.

Read the whole story: Business Spectator

Read from Kathimerini:

Creditor states push for Greek support for austerity
"...Meanwhile, Jorgos Chatzimarkakis, a German MEP of Greek descent, told Bild that Greece is in need of a new image. Chatzimarkakis proposed that Greece change its name to Hellas and rewrite its constitution as a way of starting afresh. “For many in Europe, the name ‘Greece’ stands for a broken political system, nepotism,” he said, calling for a new political system."