Political scapegoating

Whenever things get tough, the Greek government appears to start looking for phantom enemies to pin the blame on.

As bank shares plunged earlier this week, the leftist-led administration sought to put the blame on foreign news media and Greece's conservative opposition.

In doing so, it was only mimicking the same old formulas which have so often been used by other governments in Europe and closer to home.

However, issues of this nature mandate delicate and responsible management. Financial markets and speculators do not operate along partisan lines. In fact they are blind to partisan politics.

If you want to deal with them effectively, you need more than cheap scapegoating and political sorcery.