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2011-12-25 Europe

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Posted by Fred 2011-12-25 00:00|| || Front Page|| [11127 views ] Top

#1 It's funny money, but no one's laughing...

Posted by M. Murcek 2011-12-25 01:15|| 2011-12-25 01:15|| Front Page Top

#2 Beware of Greeks bearing cheques.

Posted by Anguper Hupomosing9418 2011-12-25 04:07|| 2011-12-25 04:07|| Front Page Top

#3 the European Union had been a haven for those seeking refuge from war, persecution and poverty in other parts of the world.

Doesn't anyone read history?

Posted by BrerRabbit 2011-12-25 07:38|| 2011-12-25 07:38|| Front Page Top

#4 Teheran pushed hard for the euro to replace the US dollar as the standard currency for oil sales. I wonder how far along the mullahs got with replacing USD by euros in their personal portfolios.

Posted by lotp 2011-12-25 07:40|| 2011-12-25 07:40|| Front Page Top

#5 If the European leaders weren't so terrified of anything national and not-European, cooler heads would realize that having one or more debtor countries return to their old currency could solve a lot of problems, and a lot faster, than any other means. And they could return to the Euro later.

Having two currencies means that a lot of economics currency rules can come into play. And these can be very beneficial in restoring a weakened currency to strength.

Most importantly, they keep local markets and governments functional, until the currencies have normalized.

More and more, I like the comparison to the German recovery from the Weimar hyperinflation of the Papiermark, by using the transitional currency, the Rentenmark, to reintroduce the stable permanent currency of the Reichmark.

The Rentenmark was a gold backed financial institution currency, that allowed the banks and other institutions, and governments, to normalize their finances outside of the Papiermark.

It stabilized things so well, and ended the hyperinflation, so that when the Reichsmark was introduced as the new public currency, it was seen on the street as money that could be spent or saved or invested safely.

Right now Europe could use much the same technique not to replace the Euro, but to stabilize it, wiping out unmanageable debts and credits mostly at the government and business level, while minimizing the pain involved.

Posted by Anonymoose 2011-12-25 08:58|| 2011-12-25 08:58|| Front Page Top

#6 Interesting, 'moose. I knew of the Weimar hyperinflation, of course, but didn't know the history of the Rentenmark - thanks.

Hopefully the EUros, if they did something like this, would have more sense than to call a new temporary currancy either "Rentenmark" or "Reichsmark" - but I wouldn't bet on it.

They haven't shown much sense so far. :-(

~~And after all, it worked so well for Hitler....~~

Posted by Barbara 2011-12-25 10:50|| 2011-12-25 10:50|| Front Page Top

#7 The "problem" is an old one. Some people bought the wrong pieces of paper. Some people will suffer for that mistake, no matter how hard governments and central banks fight to avoid it. Oh, yeah, "some people" is "most all of us" this time, but that does not change the definition of the problem, or the eventual resolution...

Posted by M. Murcek 2011-12-25 11:27|| 2011-12-25 11:27|| Front Page Top

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