Greece

A perfect pair
This is the time of year traditionally known as the silly season and it's hard going for people who can't relax and have no sense of humour. I like this time of year, it's a test and passing with flying colours is Edmund Conway. He brings us, in the Telegraph, but with no online version, one of the funniest stories in a while. It has an inauspicious start in that its central character is Mervyn King. But stay with me for that man is more than just an authority on moral hazard. Conway says that King likes to tell of the moment he realised that what he calls the, Great Recession, will be harder to get out of than you might think. King was at a posh conference on the world circuit with the great and the good, the politicians who lead us, and was both amused and horrified to hear them all declare they would get out of the mess by exporting. Clearly for this to work buyers and sellers must come in pairs. But at the conference in question all the world leaders were sellers. King gives the impression that only he spotted the problem, at the conference maybe.

However, the man atop the Clapham omnibus has known this for years.

New number 1
Will they, won't they? A week ago it was all stern words regarding the Greek economy from the rest of the EU. It was generally seen as a Greek problem. They got into the mess, they could get out of it, tough love stuff. What was being said by member state politicians was very different from the comments of EU politicians. The former was for the domestic audience while the latter, well, what was it for? One cannot imagine that Barack Obama wasted sleep on this and the world's financial markets and traders were not fooled either.

Angela Merkel
Why do they do it? This was asked by a friend of Germany; we had been talking about the contributions countries make to the EU coffers and the fact that the Germans always appear to pay more than anyone else. this would be a good question to ask Angela Merkel and, without her reply, the reasons can only be guessed. Perhaps the plan is to pay so much to the EU that they end up de facto owners of it all. As the financial crisis takes another turn we learn that Greece is set to follow Ireland and offer full security to bank deposits. It will soon be time to make a list of EU member countries who do and don't offer this service; because the way things are going soon Germany may stand alone with the UK.