Greece : Another way to solve the Greek debt problem

OK. So the Greeks owe their creditors €317 billion (the figure at the end of 2014).

How on earth could they pay off that debt?

Well, those of you who know my blog will maybe remember that back in May 2012, I proposed a way to cancel all goverenment debt in just 10 easy stages. 

All you need is the following list of ingrediants

• 1 cooperative bank
• 20 cooperative individuals (volunteers please)
• €1000 to start (I'm happy to put up the money)
• A network of taxhavens so that the flow of money cannot be controlled (conveniently, they are already in place)  

Essentially, the Bank uses the wonderful fractional reserve banking system to lend out roughly 10 times more money than it has capital. The person borrowing the money (lets call him A) then hands the money to another person (B) who then reinvests the sum in the Bank. The bank can then lend out 10 times more money to person C, who then gives the money to person D who reinvests in the Bank. Keep doing this a few more times, and you can generate arbitrarilly large amounts of money.

When there is enough "money" in the bank, it can loan the Greek Government the "money" which can then be used to pay off the entire €317 billion. The Greek government signs a document saying that it promises to pay the entire sum back with interest of 0% after, say, 1000 years. It's as simple as that.

Actually, the Basel Banking Rules state that the Risk Weighting of Greek Sovereign Debt is 150% since it is classed as CCC- (S&P) Caa3 (Moody's) and CCC (Fitch) which means that our friendly Bank would have to keep a bit more money as capital reserves. Instead of having to maintain capital of around €31 billion, it might need say €45 billion. But that's not really a problem.

Does this sound ridiculous? You bet. But it is this insane system that got us all into this mess in the first place. Where do you think the Banks found the €12 trillion that has been lent to European Union governments? Where do you think the Banks found the £18 trillion that has been lent to the US government? Who are we borrowing all this "money" from? The Martians? 

Not convinced? Take a look at the numbers at the National Debt Clocks website. At the time of writing, the total stood at $61.142 trillion. By the time you read this it may well have increased a lot.

No, all this "money" that our Goverments have been borrowing is stuff that has been created out of thin air by Commercial Banks. The Greeks now have the possibility of pulling the plug on this insanity. Go for it, Greece.  I'll chip in the first €1000 to get the bank off the ground. And no, I won't want the money back with interest.