A Modest Proposal for a Greek Solution before It's too Late

A very loyal reader emailed me a question this week that has set me thinking how to answer. The question : "Has a country ever just "FAILED", ceased to exist? Today we have a Greece and tomorrow it's gone. It would be like NYC being wiped out by a Superstorm Sandy that was 5 times stronger. Can you fathom waking up tomorrow and No Greece, or Spain, or Portugal, or Ireland. And the instant impact on the so-called stable economies of the US, China, Germany, England, France, etc.?" That, dear readers, is a whopper of a question that perhaps we all should have been asking for some months or even years now. And, the question applies to any Eurozone country that should never have asked to be a member of the Eurozone club - that should never have been accepted, in any case, because of questionable accounting practices used to meet Eurozone entry standards. A failure of Greece would very likely trigger their failure, too. As a conservative, I hate to suggest this, but is it time to take drastic public-entity led action to prevent even more drastic consequences of inaction. And it was my reader who offered the solution - a court controlled bankruptcy, with international support and oversight to prevent a creditor stampede for available assets or a currency collapse that could engulf the Euro as well. All with an absolute deadline of 5 years. An interim currency could be issued for all Greek uses - perhaps a "Script" type of money that would be honored by all and guaranteed by the US, World Bank, etc. This would be a lot like the Script guaranteed and used in Germany during post-WWII reconstruction. Greece is past the edge of the cliff, and Eurozone efforts to prop up the dead Greek economy and government are only temporarily pulling them back from absolute disaster. So it may be that the world's opportunity must be seized quickly, before Greece literally implodes. If we do nothing at all and if Greece ceases to exist, we could have a worldwide chain of events never faced before. Then, the question would have to be answered in chaotic circumstances. What do we do as a group of democratic nations if Greece fails - really fails - with no prior help, no internal solutions, no nothing. The Greek people would rebel internally, against themselves, in utter frustration at the plight forced upon them by Eurozone austerity demands. And would there be a "Domino Effect" in other countries that are on the edge of economic collapse but not as far along the curve as Greece. And what would the radical Muslim jihadists do in such a situation? And if we should happen to still have a President Obama, what would his response be? Not easy questions, dear readers, but they need to be asked and answered- for the world's sake, as well as Greece's.