Every time I read an article about the Eurozone I get this
feeling of anxiety. I have had an idea running through my head for the past few
weeks on a method that might be capable of extricating debtor Nations from this
mess without causing any more harm to the citizenry of Europe and, hopefully
satisfying the creditors. But I have yet to write it all down or figure out the
whole process. Even so, I'd like to throw it out there and see what flaws or
strengths it may hold...
The quick and short: Take Greece as the example. Run it on a
dual currency. Drachmas for intra-national commerce and Euros for
inter-national commerce. Run it on a conversion rate of say 1 euro = 10
drachmas. After an internal conversion of euros to drachmas you set up the
future conversion like this. Every euro that is brought into Greece generates
10 drachmas. Every drachma leaving Greece is converted into euros. Note the
difference between generate and convert. For example, a tourist comes to Greece
with 100 euros, they go to a bank to exchange this for drachmas that can only
be spent within the borders of Greece. The receive 1000 drachmas in return. The
bank keeps the 100 euros, the euros did not turn in to drachmas, they made new
drachmas. When the tourist leaves Greece, all their remaining drachmas are
converted back into euros. So how ever much money was spent by the tourist
remains in Greece as drachmas and the initial 100 euro (minus whatever wasn't
spent by the tourist) are kept at the bank. All euros kept in the bank must be
spent to service the Greek debt load. This way the money used to pay down the debt is not directly tied with the
money used to run the Greek economy.
I would be very interested to hear what anyone has to say
about this idea. Like I said, this is a very short rendering of a not fully
established idea, but one I’d like to put out there as an alternative to
business as usual as relates to debt and creditors in the Eurozone.
The real solutions to our modern economic problems cannot be
solved based on the terms that created them. We need to rethink what money is,
what debt is, what government is for. Money was supposed to serve humanity, but
now humanity is serving money. We have allowed our fictions to rule our
reality. This must stop.
The apparatus of our enslavement is the tool of our
liberation.
May all beings be happy.
I think that the idea of a dual currency has real merit, but I'm not economist enough to detect potential unintended consequences.
ReplyDeleteI think that I will devote some time to trying to see if there is any precedent for this, and how it has worked out.
One thing that comes immediately to mind is, could this create a "black market" for Euros, potentially causing dangerous inflation of the drachma?
I'll have to think about this.
It will take me a while to try to fully comprehend this Wikipedia article--non-economist that I am--but it seems to suggest that there are modern-day precedents for what you are suggesting for Greece.
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Currency_board
Have a look as time allows and let me know what you think.
To control inflation you just use taxation. When there are too many drachmas in circulation, you tax them out of circulation.
ReplyDeleteI took a look at currency board. I see some similarities, but a few major differences. The currency board pegs the internal currency to an external one, and then rides the valuations of the external currency. So the drachma would be pegged to the euro at a fixed rate and as the euro became either more or less valuable, so too would the drachma.
ReplyDeleteMy idea is to keep the currency used to fund the internal workings of the country unattached to the currency used to fund foreign debt. (Personally I think we need a world wide debt Jubilee, but that isn'y likely to happen so I'm trying to work within the world as it exists.) This way Greece can keep paying down their debt in euros without pauperizing the Greek citizens. And if Greece ends up with too many drachmas and inflation becomes a problem, then you can tax those drachmas out of circulation, convert them to euros, and pay back more of the debt.
I am sure there are a lot of problems with this idea, which is why I am hoping for some debate on the topic, but I want to find a solution that doesn't end up with austerity, with the selling off of public assets and the complete breakdown of Greek society. The current system can only have negative consequences for the Greek public. This is not a system worth supporting.
And finally... We, as a modern global civilization, need to ask ourselves one question. Is credit worthiness more important than human life?