From crisis to crisis; or from a much-coveted new development to another much-coveted new development

For about two and a half years international media have been talking about a crisis: first about a subprime crisis turning into a financial crisis, then about a crisis depressing the real economy through its new obsessions – recession and unemployment. The crisis seemed over – with GDPs growing again – yet it is funnily taking a new turn, a turn that no one expected – if we do believe certain fact-oriented articles.

This new Greek crisis, sometimes looking like a crisis of confidence for the whole euro area, was actually foreseeable and the recovery hopes promoted by international daily newspapers were in fact hiding a reality some editorialists were well-aware of: the crisis has not been solved; problems have merely been moved and frightening consequences have been delayed.

The Greek crisis is another occasion for European officials to make new amazing announcements: the possibility of a European Monetary Fund, a reinforcement of economic governance, the fight against speculators and a better regulation of Credit Defaults Swaps. Daily newspapers from various countries massively go back over these pieces of information, almost in real time, sometimes highlighting political discrepancies in a particular country or among European voices. Quickly, though, divides disappear ; Europe seems to find – according to the European press – a common solution in a few weeks’ time – sometimes even in a few days’ time. Lost in this wide variety of fact-oriented articles – which looks like some kind of disinformation –  analyses – such as the one published by The Independent from March 10^th 2010 "Europe must confront its real economic problems" – may well not reach the attention they deserve.