Guilder reintroduced

Seriously.

The exchange rate is 1:1 Euro:Guilder. That’s a lot better than the 1:2.2 fixed in 1999.

So far, the new/old currency is accepted in a few localities only.

25 replies on “Guilder reintroduced”

Google translate does its best:

Beekse Bergen in Hilvarenbeek jumps useful in the discussion around the future of the euro and the return of the guilder. This weekend, one day after the summit, accepting the safari park and other amusement parks Libéma the golden again.
Visitors include Expedition Ecodrome in Zwolle and Dutch Comic Museum in Groningen can pay their entrance tickets with quarters, dimes and dollars, but also stationery. No change is given, but the price is favorable: a golden counts as one dollar.

“At a time when every dime we have to turn around, we thought it would not hurt to also accept pennies as payment,” says director Jan Happy Mountain.

Guilder coins lost their value on January 1, 2007. Paper will remain exchangeable until 2032 at De Nederlandsche Bank.
Joked on Twitter that the PVV will be at Libéma weekend. That party said in November to carry out research for the return of the guilder. Research by Gallup shows that 72 percent of PVV voters wants to get rid of the euro.

Anyway, up with this kind of thing! The best hope I can see for the European economy is the reintroduction of their own currencies by all EZ members capable of doing so — i.e. any state which won’t suffer a catastrophic outflow on the announcement. Every little step in that direction helps.

WSJ crisis blog

The new euro-zone pact has built a firewall between Greece and the rest of the periphery.

As a result the stage could be set for a negotiated withdrawal of Greece from the single currency over the Christmas/New Year holidays, says Charles Dumas of Lombard Street Research.

Separately, Italian financial reporter Fabrizio Goria — @fgoria — tweets that a lawyer at Cleary Gottlieb, the law firm advising Greece, told him it is “almost ready to advise Greece in an exit from [the] euro zone.”

Cleary, Gottlieb are specialists in sovereign default, having handled Latin American defaults and restructuring during the 1980s.

Its a pity more schools and local community groups or eg local markets havn’t issued their own currency and played with the concept of putting in resources eg man hours doing specific jobs, selling barter items , much more fun than bartering. A small group of students could issue currency notes and agree its value per unit against whatever resources get offered into the pot:) At a deeper level, there are individual campaigners like Bill Still http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjGTaXhpObM&feature=uploademail who still report advocacy on the need to stop the FED power and the power of the six largest commercial banks to print fiat money to the value of 60% of US GDP and the havoc this has wrought in recent times.

Perhaps the G20 should look back to the late nineteenth century and the efforts of Jackson and Abraham Lincoln who issued public greenbacks, and look to a new worldwide currency to take currency out of the hands of private banks, and back into the hands of governments put in place by the people.

Most of the arguments against private banking and the havoc it creates have proved to be true. The system of private banking currently in place perhaps represents the greatest threat of all to human progress and economic stability.

@Frank Galton

very significant piece of news on Greece. I posted a link on a previous thread which contained information on them missing the revised targets. The situation looked dire.

This bit from the WSJ blog look interesting for us….
“Irish Deputy Prime Minister Eamon Gilmore said Tuesday the European Union should examine the role of credit rating firms during the euro crisis and Europe should perhaps set up its own rating firm.

“I find it very strange that these kinds of private institutions who may have their own vested interests are pronouncing on the financial health of independent sovereign countries and now of an entire continent,” Mr. Gilmore told Irish broadcaster RTE Radio.

He said that the purpose of this week’s EU summit was to solve by “decisive action” the euro-zone crisis. The priority for his government was to protect the euro zone, he added.

For Ireland, the government is also looking at lessening its debt load, Mr. Gilmore said. “Our voice will absolutely be heard,” he said.”

Is that a threat??????

This is just a local currency. Local currencies are in existence in hundreds of locations around the world. In Ireland, Kilkenny and Ballinasloe have local currencies in operation. Local currencies act to keep exchange within a geographical boundary, increase social cohesiveness, and can work for tourist attractions and other socially beneficial projects, such as urban renewal or insurance payments. Local currencies stimulate trade. By ‘locking’ in a fixed amount of currency to the area, trade increases, businesses see demand for their products rising, employment can be positively effected, and, of course, we see a more ‘mindful’ approach to local issues.

How difficult is it to make a local project like this into something more national?
Is it feasible at all?

Local currencies = not useful for trade outside an area where people accept such.

Not much difference between that and having convertible €uros alongside non-convertible €uros, is there?

There is a concerted effort evident in the Netherlands for some time now to limit the negative affects of EU membership.
The Dutch are not allowing accession state nationals remain in Holland unless they have a job.The EU is not willing to tackle the Netherlands on this issue now they have bigger fires to quell .

@CeterisParibus
Is that a threat by Gilmore! I can hear him commenting Frankfurt’s way or Dublins way.

@hari Naidu

Neo nazi policies of Wilders party. How frustrating it must be for the dutch to have to listen to ill informed commentary like that. The 2nd largest party in the polls is not an aberration and its definitely not a neo-nazi party. It might be very trendy to say they are neo-nazi but very far removed from reality. Sorry to burst your bubble

@Eureka
There is a Mosler plan out there to keep the old euros in your deposit account and print / tax the new domestic currency and so therefore have a dual currency system in operation.
People would not loose their euro savings then I suppose.

@wow
+1 for some odd reason lots of so-called “leftists” these days feel they must support some extremely fanatical religious zealots

You can use a local currency to pay for local goods and services. Among other things Ireland needs to correct are high domestic costs and high domestic pay (unless it can find a way to compete internationally via some wheeze that renders this unnecessary).

It has made a political decision to borrow from official creditors to allow the grindingly slow correction to take place over possibly decades. It has not chosen to introduce a local currency to do it quickly and, importantly, simultaneously – partly because this option is a basically a secret kept from the public and is never discussed.

Worth noting that Wilders party did not support the Irish ‘loan arrangement’ with the IMF/EC/ECB in the Parliament of Die Nederlands; thankfully, the Dutch Social Democrats came to the rescue and all those friendships (very much strongeer since the wee chat between Paul McGrath and Ruud Gullit) remain.

Giscard d’Estaing has suggested Greece should consider leaving the euro. As quoted by the Guardian:

Greece could stay in the eurozone but it is very difficult to achieve economic recovery with a strong currency. Is it better to use a national currency for a period, or have the safety of a strong currency? It is Greece’s choice.

I welcome Giscard to the ranks of the DFH.

If we’ve looking at complementary currencies, the WIR Bank in Switzerland might be a good model to follow. It’s been in operation since 1934, has over 60,000 SME members, and saw trades of SFr1.6 billion (approx €1.29 billion in current exchange rates) of WIR in 2008.

Some further reading here:
http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/business/Cash_substitute_greases_business_wheels.html?cid=7613810
http://projects.exeter.ac.uk/RDavies/arian/wir.html
http://www2.socioeco.org/bdf/en/corpus_document/fiche-document-351.html

@Richard Tol

Useful contribution on Drivetime today re all those ‘Regressives’ ….

Perhaps we might get a piece of Legislation into Irish Fiscal Policy that all Regressive measures are to be deemed Un-Constitutional from now on ….

… then all those in the so called smart economy might figure a few things out …

@The FARC

Hope you are listening!

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