Will Greek Finance Minister Varoufakis Support Cryptocurrency In Greece?

giulioprisco writes New Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis, former Economist-in-Residence at game developer Valve Corporation, sees something like Bitcoin — or, more likely, a state-controlled "Fedcoin" — possibly playing a role in the (necessarily creative) rescue of the Greek economy. "The technology of Bitcoin, if suitably adapted, can be employed profitably in the Eurozone," he said.

Comments

Umm... Lulz....

[Anonymous Coward]

Does anyone care what Minister Varoufakis thinks?
.

Re: Umm... Lulz....

[lgw]

Once the possibility of someone exiting the Euro becomes real other countries will be tempted or pushed out basically making it pointless.

It was an economic marriage. And like in any marriage there are good times and bad times. Unfortunately some in Europe don't think of it this way.

Not pointless - there's real economic benefit to a single currency for Europe.

If it's a marriage, then Greece is the abusive, cheating spouse. They've gone from irresponsibly spending more than they could ever repay (since they can't inflate their way out of debt), through a brief attempt at surviving austerity (terms of the debt relief they got - everyone knew it would suck), to saying "screw you, we're too big to fail, we're gonna spend spend spend, what are you gonna do about it?"

Greece was in a better economic position than most of Eastern Europe at the start of all this, with a better standard of living (even had they chosen to live within their means) than many later entrants in to Euro. But they chose to spend vastly more than they were making, running up the highest debt-to-GDP ratio in Europe, inflating that standard of living artificially until they could borrow no more.

What the US thinks of that isn't very relevant, but those Easter European countries that made real sacrifice to join the Euro, and who have been keeping their debt down and surviving with a much lower standard of living than Greece and directly paying for Greece's first bailout in some cases aren't impressed with Greece's excuses. At this point, a "Grexit" will be less disruptive than continued bailouts.

Re: Umm... Lulz....

[TheRaven64]

The Eurozone might be able to absorb a Greek exit in purely financial terms, but in psychological terms it would be a disaster. If Greece leaves, then that provides a precedent for countries leaving. Investments in Euros are based on the premise that the Euro is backed by a large economic base and if countries can leave that base then there's a lot less of an incentive to use the Euro. That's likely to lead to a drop in liquidity in the rest of the Eurozone, which would make leaving an even more attractive bet for some of the weaker economies.

Whatever they do

[fustakrakich]

I just hope they hold up and tell the banks and Germany to go to hell. That is what they were elected for. Now, if they do, there could very easily be another military coup ordered by those banks. Unfortunately, it looks like compromise for the benefit of financial institutions is still the only thing on the menu. This 'crypto-currency' thing looks like a diversion.

Re:Taxation

[JBMcB]

My favorite story about Greece's problems:

In the 90's a governmental committee was formed for the sole purpose to close a particular dam. After a decade, the dam was closed and demolished. That committee still exists. They don't go around closing other dams, they, I assume, just make sure the dam is still closed.

Source: Planet Money

Re:Why?

[cheesybagel]

I guess you didn't hear that even Greece is now running a primary surplus. You know what that means? The Goverment spends less than it collects in taxes.

Spain had been running a primary surplus for a long time and the banking sector fail still brought them down.

Re: Umm... Lulz.Markets will Rule

[BoRegardless]

Prediction is Greece will exit the EU because of inefficient use of all forms of resources. They have been pseudo-socialist giveaway state for so long w/1 in 3 workers working for the state's institutions, they've collectively forgotten market economics is what runs countries effectively.

Venezuela is the prime example of wasteful redistribution policies by a government which collapse a society (military takeover is next.)

Greece will change fairly soon and it will be somewhat painful or they will deteriorate toward Venezuela's position, in which case it will impoverish Greece's working class.