Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Wolfson Prize: Schoolboy plan to save euro commended

Jurre Hermans

An 11-year-old boy's plan to save the eurozone has been commended in a major competition that has attracted some of the world's top economists.

Schoolboy Jurre Hermans from the Netherlands gets a special mention - and a 100-euro gift voucher.

He suggested Greeks should swap euros for their old currency, the drachma.

Five entries were shortlisted for the Wolfson Economics Prize in the competition to find the best plan for dealing with a eurozone break-up.

They include the well-known economist Roger Bootle from Capital Economics.

Jurre Hermans, whose father helped him with the translation into English for the submission, also likened Greek debt to a pizza.

He suggested that Greeks be incentivised to return euros for debt repayment. If they did not return their euros, they should be fined the equivalent of what they held back.

Returned euros would form what he described as a giant pizza of money, slices of which would be handed back to creditors.

The prize sought to find the best answer to the following question: "If member states leave the Economic and Monetary Union, what is the best way for the economic process to be managed to provide the soundest foundation for the future growth and prosperity of the current membership?"

The news of the shortlist comes as European governments and international bodies continue to discuss how best to keep the eurozone afloat and intact.

Last week eurozone finance ministers agreed to boost the joint lending power of the bloc's rescue funds from 500bn to 800bn euros ($1.1tn; £667bn).

The finalists for the Wolfson Prize are:

• Roger Bootle and team, Capital Economics

• Cathy Dobbs, private investor

• Jens Nordvig and Nick Firoozye, Nomura Securities

• Neil Record, Record Currency Management

• Jonathan Tepper, Variant Perception

The Wolfson prize is worth 10,000 euros and is second in value to the Nobel Prize for Economics.

Lord Wolfson, whose family charity is putting up the prize money, said: "Sadly, the risk of a country leaving the eurozone has not gone away.

"The ideas contained in these entries are an invaluable contribution to tackling this important issue. I am incredibly grateful to everyone who made a submission and look forward to awarding the prize this summer."

The finalists will be given time to add to and polish their ideas before the winner is announced in early July.

Derek Scott, chairman of the judges, said: "The question of currency break-up is clearly enormously complex, spanning financial and legal arrangements.

"We were impressed by a number of the entrants' efforts to grapple with these issues. We felt it was only fair to give finalists the opportunity to refine their thoughts. "



Source & Image : BBC

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