Weasel Words

You will recall that just under a year ago I blogged about the word deficit being used as if it was the word debt. Well, another word is being abused. The word is re-structured as in ‘Greece is considering re-structuring its debt.’ Whenever you hear this sentence you should mentally change it to ‘Greece is considering defaulting on its debt’, for this is what is meant. Quite why this euphemism is being used I do not know.


Incidentally, if you were in a situation where you had accumulated a large debt, a debt so large that you could no longer afford the interest payments, would you consider it wise to solve the problem by taking on more debts? Of course not, but as far as I can see this is exactly the approach that has been taken by Greece, Ireland and Portugal. Given this illogical approach it would seem to be only a matter of time before all three countries eventually succumb to the inevitable re-structuring of defaulting on their debt. What happens then to the billions of pounds that we have given to European Financial Stabilisation Mechanism?