The Minister of Finance, Yanis Varoufakis, in his keynote address at the
Economist Athens Conference, referred to the idea that the ECB’s SMP-program
Greek government (pre-2012) bonds (face value appr. 27 billion euros) be repaid
through the ESM, with a possible parallel swap between new Greek government
bonds and the ESM.
Some journalists chose to report this as the Minister having threatened,
or announced, that the Greek government would not redeem the SMP-program Greek
government bonds held by the ECB in July and August. This type of ‘journalism’
must, at long last, be isolated and shamed by the vast majority of journalists
striving properly to inform the public.
