£250,000 For A Plan To Break-up The Eurozone, Anyone?

Yesterday, Lord Wolfson, the Chief Executive of Next, offer a £250,000 prize for the best plan to break-up the Eurozone.  Or more precisely, to allow an orderly exit of one or more member states from the Eurozone.  It says the prize is “targeted at top academic economists from around the world”. 

Lord Wolfson talked to BBC Today programme yesterday, apparently. He thinks there’s a “policy vacuum”, and while “everyone’s talking about the possibility” of the Eurozone might have to be broken up, but there’s no thoughts on it at the moment, and “how that’s managed will be critical in deciding the prosperity of Europe for the next 20 years”.  You can here what he has to say here. 

So what do  you need to answer?  Here are what you need, according to the press release:

• Whether and how to redenominate sovereign debt, private savings, and domestic mortgages in the departing nations.
• Whether and how international contracts denominated in euros might be altered, if one party to the contract is based in a member state which leaves EMU.
• The effects on the stability of the banking system.
• The link between exit from EMU and sovereign debt restructuring.
• How to manage the macroeconomic effects of exit, including devaluation, inflation, confidence, and effects on debts.
• Different timetables and approaches to transition (e.g. “surprise” redenomination versus signalled transitions).
• How best to manage the legal and institutional implications.
• A consideration of evidence from relevant historical examples (e.g. the end of various currency pegs and previous monetary unions).

The deadline of submission of your plan will be 31 January 2012, and let’s hope that it’s not too late (i.e. Eurozone breaks up before they have a chance to read all the plans).

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About Zarathustra

Zarathustra: Founder and Managing Editor of Also sprach Analyst. Once an analyst, now an investor and entrepreneur. Based in Hong Kong, but Londoner at heart.