Arguably, the headline alone should disqualify this as a serious contribution to the debate; it's a classic strawman. Nobody of any stature who is arguing that Greece would be better off if it left the Euro has suggested that it would be a "piece of cake" to do so, only that given the assumed alternative of harsh-austerity-without-end, Greece would be better off taking the hit of leaving the Euro and getting it over with. If you have to amputate a limb to save your life, nobody would describe the surgery as a "piece of cake"; they would say that it's clearly better than the alternative.
Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected] (202) 448-2898 x1 On Wed, Jul 15, 2015 at 11:58 AM, Marv Gandall <[email protected]> wrote: > On Jul 15, 2015, at 8:27 AM, Louis Proyect via Marxism < > [email protected]> wrote: > > > Turns out that Yves Smith is a Goldman-Sachs alumni like me. She agrees > totally with my drachma automation post and put it up on Naked Capitalism. > Lots of interesting comments there even if most are uninformed. Columbia > University, which had a pretty good IT infrastructure for a nonprofit, > spent a year analyzing Y2K conversion tasks and then a year testing it. And > all that was involved for the most part was looking for program code that > was in an mm/dd/yy format and modifying to mm/dd/yyyy. > > > > > http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2015/07/convert-to-the-drachma-piece-of-cake-right.html > > > Louis, I don’t have the technical expertise to judge, but this piece does > seem to contradict your assertion that Greece is incapable of converting to > the drachma because “billions of dollars would be required to do such a > conversion and the cash-starved government agencies would even have less > money for such a project than private corporations”. > > Those interviewed suggested the government could immediately issue IOU’s > linked to the remaining stock of euros held in its reserve coupled with a > keystroke digital conversion of euros to drachmas in private bank accounts. > The electronic circulation of the currency for tax payments and trade would > then gradually be followed by the printing and introduction of banknotes > over an extended period of a year or more. > > Quoting from the article: > > "The government and banks could work together to convert all bank deposits > from euros into drachmas, either overnight or over a set period of time. > Practically speaking, this would mean a person with 100 euros in their bank > account on Tuesday could find that they instead have 100 drachmas in their > account on Wednesday. There wouldn’t be any physical drachmas available > yet, but the money would exist digitally…If the Greek government resolves > to push ahead with its drachma currency, it would eventually have to print > banknotes and coins. The process of designing and printing new banknotes > would take at least a year, according to Bernd Kuemmerle, who is head of > the banknote business division at German-based Giesecke & Devrient, a > leading global banknote producer.” > > http://money.cnn.com/2015/07/07/news/economy/greece-drachma-currency-cash/ > > Frankly, I find it difficult to accept, with great respect for your > previous experience as a computer programmer, that you have uniquely have > discovered a fatal technical flaw in converting to the drachma that many > currency experts in the universities, central banks, international > agencies, commercial banks, and investment houses have not. Their concern > seems to be less the technical aspects of the conversion than the exchange > rate at which the new drachma would settle and the danger of runaway > hyperinflation. Here opinion is frequently coloured by the politics of the > observers. This piece from Fortune magazine is less alarmist than most: > > http://fortune.com/2015/07/06/greek-drachma-conversion-euro/ > > Yves Smith, BTW, has no more of a technical background to my knowledge > than we other lay people. She worked, as you may know, on the investment > banking side of Goldman-Sachs, not in the IT department as you did. > > Finally, for those who happen to live in the Ottawa, Ontario area, there > is a protest against the imposition of the latest austerity package at the > EU Commission, 185 Metcalfe (below Laurier) at 5.30 this afternoon. > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l >
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