Greek bailout plan
Times are tough, everybody is in debt and everybody is living on credit.
On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through a town in Greece , stops at the local hotel and lays a €100 note on the desk, telling the hotel owner he wants to inspect the rooms upstairs in order to pick one to spend the night.
The owner gives him some keys and, as soon as the visitor has walked upstairs, the hotelier grabs the €100 note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.
The butcher takes the €100 note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer.
The pig farmer takes the €100 note and heads off to pay his bill at the supplier of feed and fuel.
The guy at the Farmers' Co-op takes the €100 note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the pub.
The publican slips the money along to the local prostitute drinking at the bar, who has also been facing hard times and has had to offer him "services" on credit.
The hooker then rushes to the hotel and pays off her room bill to the hotel owner with the €100 note.
The hotel proprietor then places the €100 note back on the counter so the rich traveller will not suspect anything.
At that moment the traveller comes down the stairs, picks up the €100 note, states that the rooms are not satisfactory, pockets the money and leaves town. No one produced anything. No one earned anything. However, the whole town is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism.
And that is how the bailout package works.
5 Comments:
Now that I like. Might try it but sadly I think that I do not know any pig farmers. There used to be a Jewish one in Devon (true - I met him at a dinner party!).
Portinari
Oh!
Of no interest to me . The Daily Mail says that Europe is unimportant .
Economics class made simple. Thank you,WW.
Hmm well, as you know I am economist with quite a reputation ( nothing to do with economics, sadly) and I can tell you that it won't work.SOMEONE needs to actually leave some cash on the table, otherwise the total debt will just grow again and NO ONE will have the ability to actually earn anything - which is where the problem lies in the first place.
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