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The Euro and The Greek Bailout Plan – A Joke…Really

One of my clients sent me the following and I thought, this isn’t funny, but it is a joke.

But before you read it, I want to look back to when the Euro was first being put in place. I said then, and believe now, the currency must fail.

The very premise of it made no sense to me: Take a multitude of cultures, with a multitude of economies, with multitude of currencies and then combine all of them, but allow them all to negotiate the base exchange rates (the first round of self-enrichment) so that eventually the countries with the strongest economies can seek to impose their philosophies upon cultures and economies that are inapplicable (such as taking a German industrial-based approach to Greece’s tourism based economy) in order to assure that their economies are not hurt by the ones they are actually trying to exploit through increased sales of their goods and services (the second round of self-enrichment).

I mean, for example, how on earth could Greece’s tourism economy get back from Germany the same amount of benefit as it gives to Germany from its purchase of German goods and services? The math seemed and seems pretty simple to me.

That said, now read this:

This may help clarify the Greek debt situation.

It is a slow day in a little Greek Village. The rain is beating down and the streets are deserted. Times are tough, everybody is in debt, and everybody lives on credit.

On this particular day a rich German tourist is driving through the village, stops at the local hotel and lays a 100 Euro 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 Euro note and runs next door to pay his debt to the butcher.

The butcher takes the 100 Euro note and runs down the street to repay his debt to the pig farmer.

The pig farmer takes the 100 Euro 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 Euro note and runs to pay his drinks bill at the tavern.

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 Euro note.

The hotel proprietor then places the 100 Euro 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 Euro 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 village is now out of debt and looking to the future with a lot more optimism.

And that Ladies and Gentlemen, is how the bailout package works