Jan 3rd 2012, 18:30 by J.A.
YOU may recall that yesterday Cassandra confessed his love of the euro, but was far from convinced that the euro zone would survive 2012 with all its 17 members. The obvious candidate for departure is Greece, but then the question is whether the Greeks themselves should want to leave. For her part, Arianna Huffington, the Athens-born eponymous creator of the Huffington Post, is in no doubt—the austerity programme is simply not worth its consequences, as she explained at the recent World in 2012 festival in New York...
This blog accompanies The World in 2012, our almanac of predictions for the year ahead. The blog is named after the mythological Cassandra, who was cursed by Apollo to make prophecies that were accurate, but disbelieved
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Simple Solution to Save the Euro:
The Market Solution: Let Monetary Paper Debt become Real Assets.
The history of civilization, geopolitics, power and war have always been about LAND and TERRITORY. Wars have been waged for decades and even centuries over European land borders which historically fluctuate in power struggles.
Let the Debtor European Nations Sell Land to the Wealthy, Indebted Nations.
Let the wealthy Northern European Countries buy real estate from Poor Southern European Countries. Transfer whole islands and wipe out debts. A billion euros per 10 square kilometer of prime Mediterranean beachfront land.
Land changes sovereignty but remains in Euroland. We live in a post military world where land holdings due not insure security or sovereignty. Does it matter if Crete has a German or Greek Flag? Not really, just that the economy and tourism keep buzzing.
Greece has over 7,000 islands, many are uninhabited. Sell Crete to Germany and have Greece erase its entire debt! Greece can be saved for less than 3% of its territory.
Italy can be saved by selling Sicily.
Ireland could part with a few cold but scenic Atlantic islands.
Portugal has the the Madeira islands.
World Wars have been waged for far less land. Let these be non militarized tourist zones with new sovereignty. Allow only peaceful development with resorts, retirement communities and tourist traps. It would stream billions more into development and infrastructure to the Southern Mediterranean: new airports, ports, distributors, construction, hotels, retail, and homes.
Let this be not just a EU Auction to the snow-bound Germans, Austrians and Scandinavians, but open it up to wealthy Swiss, Americans and even Chinese sovereign funds. It is an ebay auction but bidding starts in the Tens of Billions and may approach a Trillion.
This Simple Solution will enable Greece to Remain in the EU, enable Greeks to keep the Euro currency, inject billions of investment and construction into development to the Southern Mediterranean, allow the elderly in cold countries to live out their lives in warm sunshine, and relieve Greece from a suffocating debt that they may need generations to repay.
Unloading scenic but unproductive islands that account for less than 5% of your land and has no strategic importance in the Post Cold War Era is a small price to pay for relief for a suffocating national debt that will take generations if not a century to pay off.
IT is WIN-WIN.
I imagine that Cretans, Sicilians etc. would have a very different point of view! It might be possible with smaller islands, in fact this has been suggested by past Greek conservative governments, but they were always shot down in flames by the opposition (PASOK) party. Perhaps if we HAD sold off a few small, virtually uninhabited islands all those years ago we may not have been in the dire situation that now exists. Or maybe that is just wishful thinking. What might save us at the 11th hour is the development of Greece's oil reserves in the Ionian Sea area. These resources have been systematically ignored for years, and investment possibilities have only recently been put out to tender. I await developments on the subject with bated breath.