Stock pile
THE euro is supposed to be converging with the drachma and I have been to Greece to check on it. Something, I noted, will have to be done about Deka. This is the State Portfolio Investment Company, which earlier this year spent half a trillion drach- mae (or about £10 billion) propping up the shares of other state companies. An election was looming, and the government did not want its prices to look weak. It even lent Deka 100 billion drachmae from public funds. The election was won but the stock market carried on downwards. Today, reports the Athenian newspaper Kathime- rini, Deka has been left with empty coffers: `All it has been left with is mountains of worthless paper, or share titles of state firms that the company is unable to sell. Any attempt would precipitate a crash.' Deka will have to be given European Union fund- ing. After the butter mountain and the wine lake, Europe would acquire a stockpile. Then convergence could get back on track.
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