A 10 year old boy from the Netherlands won 100 euro for submitting a plan to solve the Greek debt crisis. UK’s daily The Telegraph reported that the boy, Jurre Hermans, stole the limelight from some of Europe’s tope economists with a eurozone breakup plan involving pizza slices and pancakes.
Debt crisis: 11-year-old Jurre Hermans wins €100 for ‘pizza and pancake’ Greek euro exit plan
Jurre Hermans was among 452 candidates who submitted entries to win the £250,000 Wolfson Economics Prize, launched last October by Next chief executive Lord Wolfson to find a credible plan for a euro exit.
Although his idea was not among the five shortlisted, Jurre received special mention from the judging panel.
Jurre’s plan suggests that Greek people could exchange their euros for new drachma at the bank, which the Greek government would then redistribute to creditors so they could get “a slice of the pizza”.
“The Bank gives all these euro’s [sic] to the Greek Government 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 euro’s in the pizza’s go the companies and banks who have given loans in greece ,” Jurre’s entry stated.
Jurre’s plan also addressed a potential capital flight from Greece: “The Greek people do not want to exchange their Euros for Drachmes [sic] because they know that this Drachme will lose its value dramatically,” he said.
“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.”
The crafty plan took Jurre just a week to devise and caught his father – who described Jurre as “an average school student” – by surprise.
Despite his entry, economics isn’t a future career choice for the youngster. “I want to be the director of a zoo,” he said.
And Jurre finds the resulting media attention a bit of a chore. He said: “I’d rather be playing in the sun.”
Jurre Hermans’s submission:
Dear Sir and Madam,My name is JurreHermans. I am 10 years old and live in the Netherlands. I am quite worried about theeurocrisis and look at the TV news daily. The eurocrisis is a big problem. I think aboutsolutions. Since I read in the newspaper about your price, I thought that I would like to submit myidea. The idea might fit. So here it is:I made a picture of my solution and I will explain it to you.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.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 euro’s to the Greek Government.All these euros together form a pancake or a pizza. 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 theseeuro’s in the pizza’s go the companies and banks who have given loans in greece.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 thisDrachme will lose its value dramatically. They try to keep or hide their Euro’s. They know that if theywait 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 Hollandorn Germany) and it is discovered, he gets a penalty just as high or double as the whole amountin 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 canpay back all the debts.I hope my idea helps you!!!!Ofcourse 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 inHolland. I have 5 friends with whom I play all day, mostly outside.PS: My father helped me with my English translation as I speak Dutchgreetings from Holland,Jurre Hermans
Dutch pizza??? *throw-up*
oh, do not! he meant Greek and euro pizza. but it’s a throw-up anyway lol
I like the part about not allowing Greek to keep or exchange his money anywhere but Greek bank, I think Greeks should be banned from foreign banks and maybe they’d be forced to use Greek banks and would help Greece ultimately
1. And then loose all your money because the bank has pulled your account empty to transfer them into Greek Bonds that are subject to ‘the haircut’?
2. What constitutes a Greek bank? These?
Emporiki – Parent: Crédit Agricole (France)
Geniki – Parent: Société Générale Group (France)
Millennium Bank – Parent: Banco Comercial Português
Eurobank EFG – a member company of European Financial Group EFG (Luxembourg)
Hellenic Bank – Headquarters: Nicosia, Cyprus
Marfin Egnatia Bank – Marfin Investment Group (Dubai)
3. A lot of Greek banks are run like they are the personal purse of the families who own or run them. Nice examples in the Greek press over the years about Eurobank EFG, Piraeus. And the owner of Proton is accused and in court over alleged embezzlement. But no-one is found guilty in a court of law. So these must be just nasty defamation campaigns. But when ALPHA BANK was to merge with Eurobank, I made arrangements to transfer my money the moment that would have gone through.
4. It’s all about trust. So if you trust the Greek banks so much, you should put your money where your mouth is and bring your life savings over here. And there is nothing wrong with transferring your money abroad, as long as you pay your taxes over them.
As if Greeks who have money on foreign banks are all responsible, he? What comes next? Diaspora Greeks… Any nice and sleazy solutions?
Someone should inform the kid that Greek banks still have Drachma bunkered, so there is no need to print “new Drachma”. Also that money got burnt to feed the families and pay bills…
I showed this to my ten year old who gave her answer on how to solve Greece debt crisis she said that the people who took all the money should give it back and be sent away for being bad. I just love ten year olds everything is so simple
10 million Greeks would agree withoyour 10-year old. I guess the rest one million of the Greke population is the one who took the money.
haha very good
So history repeats itself! And the Greeks are getting [each time] much better at it; having pulled another fast one — on Europe, this time — using nothing but the `Mirage of The Trojan Horse`.