Economics as Entertainment?

You have to hand it to the Greeks. Having managed to turn a game with 20 players into one with 21, they have captured top billing in the official media this week.

Since I don't have any contact with the most wealthy of the Planet and hope not to be driven out into the snow by their incessant demands and uppity behaviour, I actually found the reporting from Cannes last evening to be a sort of amusing distraction, coming from far, far away.

It certainly made a welcome change from the efforts of radio journalists to bore us witless with fiscal matters. The language of economics is bewildering and seemingly that is how it manages to hoodwink ordinary people who do not understand a blessed word of what is being said. The DOW could whiz up and down daily. It will not make any difference to the health of the trees in my garden or to how I view the world. All the shouting on the trading floor only adds to my desire to switch off.

The Greeks seem to be more engaged in the current problems and I should probably be grateful that somebody is taking time and energy to try to find out what is really going on in "Europe". The statement that the centre is now "profoundly European" is a reminder that for English speakers "Europe" is a moveable feast.

Being banished from the table does not seem a great disaster to me...