The ‘pizza’ solution to the Greek debt crisis
People grab free produce distributed by farmers on January 25, 2012 in Athens. Jurre Hermans, a eleven-year-old boy from the Netherlands, uses food as a metaphor for his solution to the crisis. His proposal received honorable mention for the Wolfson Economics Prize.
Today the finalists for the Wolfson Economics Prize were announced.
This year, the prize is offering £250,000 to whoever has the best idea for an orderly breakup of the Euro.
The finalists are all here:
a) Catherine Dobbs – The NEWNEY approach to unscrambling the Euro
b) Roger Bootle – Leaving the euro: A practical guide
c) Jonathan Tepper – A Primer on the Euro Breakup: Default, Exit and Devaluation as the Optimal Solution
d) Jens Nordvig – Planning for an orderly break-up of the European Monetary Union
All the papers certainly make for good reading on the issue.
There was also an honorable mention to 11-year-old Jurre Hermans of the Netherlands.
You can download his idea here, but here's his explanation.
And we have to say, it's actually kind of tyrannical from the mind of an 11-year-old boy:
Greece should leave the Euro. How do you do that?
All Greek people should bring their Euro to the bank. They put it in an exchange machine (see left on my picture). You see, the Greek guy does not look happy!! The Greek man gets back Greek Drachme from the bank, their old currency.
The Bank gives all these euros to the Greek government (see top left on my picture below). All these euros together form a pancake or a pizza (see on top in the picture). Now the Greek government can start to pay back all their debts, everyone who has a debt gets a slice of the pizza. You see that all these euros in the pizzas go the companies and banks who have given loans in greece (see right in my picture)
Now here comes the clever part of my idea:
The Greek people do not want to exchange their Euro's for Drachmes because they know that this Drachme will lose its value dramatically. They try to keep or hide their Euro's. They know that if they wait a while they will get more Drachmes.
So if a Greek man tries to keep his Euros(or bring his euros to a bank in an other country like Holland orn Germany) and it is discovered, he gets a penalty just as high or double as the whole amount in euros he tried to hide!!!
In this way I ensure that all Greeks bring their euros to a greek bank and so the greek government can pay back all the debts.
I hope my idea helps you!!!!
Of course if a country has paid back all his debts, he can return to the eurozone.
A bit more about myself: I am 10, love animals since I have a dog and a bird. I live in a family of 5 in Holland. I have 5 friends with whom I play all day, mostly outside.
PS: My father helped me with my English translation as I speak Dutch
greetings from Holland,
Jurre Hermans
Here's the visual he designed to go with his idea:
As for the "serious" entries above, check out the one from Jens Nordvig and Nick Firoozye, which was originally a Nomura research report. It's excellent.
(Via Chrissie Murray)
UPDATE: Hermans' 'solution' is going viral. The Guardian has just written about him. So has The Telegraph. So has WSJ. Everyone is talking about Jurre!
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