IMF Optimistic on Greece ... Greece currently looks poised to avoid a restructuring of its debt, although Europe's fiscal crises could yet spread to other parts of the euro zone and parts of Eastern Europe, the International Monetary Fund said Thursday. "We think that Greece should be [headed] in the right direction ... there's no need for any type of restructuring," said Antonio Borges, director of the IMF's European Department. He said the IMF is prepared to assist Greece if it calls for additional financial support and said it could always revise its view on Greece depending on new data. – Wall Street Journal

Dominant Social Theme: Everything's going to be OK. The EU is fine and so is the euro. Don't worry, be happy.

Free-Market Analysis: This is one of those articles where you have to check the date. The Greeks are rioting, the Eurocrats are panicking and meeting secretly in Greece, the bond markets are quaking, too, and Antonia Borges sounds ... well, happy. We thought perhaps this was an article from 2007 before it all started to go so horribly wrong. But no, the Journal published the article on May 12th, so Borges' eldritch optimism has to do with the situation as it is now.

While Borges hasn't contributed anything substantial to the larger dialogue outside of rhetorical creepiness, his statements do provide us with a classical example of a power elite sub-dominant social theme. The larger elite promotion would have to do with the wonderful immutability of the European Union itself. The lesser theme has to do with the immovable rigor of its financial and regulatory priesthood and the sacredness of the project itself. The EU is an impossibly positive good. In fact, in all its goodness, it is scheduled to expand!