Eurozone crisis is a buyers' strike, not an uprising

Commentators portray the markets as aggressively attacking European government bonds. David Rowe argues what is really happening is a buyers’ strike motivated by fear – and warns failure to recognise this could result in bad policy

A common human failing is the tendency to allow muddled language to undermine clarity of thought. One example are the euphemisms used to avoid confronting harsh realities. Thus ‘crippled’ becomes ‘handicapped’, which becomes ‘differently abled’; violent terrorists become insurgents and a Greek default becomes a voluntary restructuring.

Sometimes the transformation works in reverse, adding inappropriate colour and drama in a way that obscures reality. This tendency can be seen in coverage of