Spanish village dumps euro & goes back to peseta

patwicklow · 15-02-2012 4:35pm #1

Spanish village goes back to peseta: Residents turn to old money they'd held on to in case the euro folded

Thirty businesses have started using old currency
Spain estimated to have saved 1.7bn euros in pesetas
Jobless rate in Villamayor de Santiago above national average - with a third out of work

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2100565/Spanish-village-goes-peseta-euro-crisis-takes-hold.html

Immaculate Pasta · 15-02-2012 4:38pm

Nice. I'm now looking forward to the first Irish village abandoning the Euro and going back to potatoes :cool:

Nothingbetter2d · 15-02-2012 4:41pm

Immaculate Pasta wrote: »

Nice. I'm now looking forward to the first Irish village abandoning the Euro and going back to potatoes :cool:

nah all our spuds are imported from cyprus

Chuck Stone · 15-02-2012 4:41pm

I admire them. Currencies should be able to compete and in the digital age this would be even easier to acomplish.

Printing money, like the US and UK has been doing, makes poor people even poorer because it leads to inflation.

patwicklow · 15-02-2012 4:44pm

Good on them they have back bone f@ck the useless euro

Feeona · 15-02-2012 4:46pm

There's something very Whisky Galore about all this.

patwicklow · 15-02-2012 4:49pm

Feeona wrote: »

There's something very Whisky Galore about all this.

?????

Cool Mo D · 15-02-2012 4:54pm

Chuck Stone wrote: »

I admire them. Currencies should be able to compete and in the digital age this would be even easier to acomplish.

Printing money, like the US and UK has been doing, makes poor people even poorer because it leads to inflation.

No it doesn't - poor people don't have cash savings, so inflation means nothing to them. Moderate inflation is generally good for the less well off, as it encourages people with cash savings to spend or invest it, creating jobs.

Anyway, the village aren't dumping the euro, shopkeepers are encouraging people to dig out old pesetas they've forgotten about and spend them in their shops. Pesetas can still be converted to Euros, but it means people with pesetas won't have to go to Madrid to convert them.

If somewhere was really going to dump the euro, going back to pesetas would be the stupidest move imaginable, as old peseta notes would become worthless if the euro collapsed.

Feeona · 15-02-2012 4:59pm

patwicklow wrote: »

?????

I'm not sure if you're asking about the film, or questioning the link I've made to what's happening in Spain?

John Doe1 · 15-02-2012 5:04pm

I hear the basques have started trading in bombs:p

robinph · 15-02-2012 5:06pm

Domo230 wrote: »

Call me economically naive but why would they start doing this? If a business sells it's goods in exchange for a dead currency then what use is it to them? There's only a few dozen people in the world who will take their money? Why do the banks want what this dead currency?

To keep the money floating around the local economy?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-bristol-16852326

number10a · 15-02-2012 5:08pm

patwicklow wrote: »

f@ck the useless euro

Any "useless" euros you have floating around, just PM me for my address and I'll be happy to lighten the load.

Chuck Stone · 15-02-2012 5:08pm

Cool Mo D wrote: »

No it doesn't - poor people don't have cash savings, so inflation means nothing to them.

Wrong.

In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time. When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services.

Economists generally agree that high rates of inflation and hyperinflation are caused by an excessive growth of the money supply.

Robert Barro and Vittorio Grilli (1994), European Macroeconomics, Ch. 8, p. 139, Fig. 8.1. Macmillan.

Poor people have low incomes or are on welfare. They have no money to play with after their outgoings, ergo, inflation (increasing amounts of currency chasing finite amounts of goods and services as per above) results in a lowering in quality of life.

How you work out that people with savings (surplus wealth) are affected by inflation more than the poor is some distortion of logic.

Inflation has hit poorer families much harder than the rich, the latest research shows – and the trend is set to deteriorate. The independent Institute for Fiscal Studies says that for a decade the pattern of price rises has meant that the least well-off families, especially pensioners, have been hit hardest by rising prices.

The Independent, Business News

ToddyDoody · 15-02-2012 5:08pm

Why not operate a dual currency again? Punt and euro.. Print the punt, spend the punt.. Save the euro.

patwicklow · 15-02-2012 6:18pm

Feeona wrote: »

I'm not sure if you're asking about the film, or questioning the link I've made to what's happening in Spain?

Didnt know that was a film ye got me there lol

starlit · 15-02-2012 6:21pm

Good for them, they talking sense. It be worth doing that for their economy.

patwicklow · 15-02-2012 9:19pm

doovdela wrote: »

Good for them, they talking sense. It be worth doing that for their economy.

yes people power is best

dxhound2005 · 15-02-2012 9:58pm

When will the people who have €361 million worth of punts spend them I wonder.

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/pricewatch/2012/02/10/where-has-all-the-old-money-gone/

Jim_Kiy · 15-02-2012 10:30pm

Immaculate Pasta wrote: »

Nice. I'm now looking forward to the first Irish village abandoning the Euro and going back to potatoes :cool:

Potatoes..na too bulky how about curly fries?

Jim_Kiy · 15-02-2012 10:36pm

dxhound2005 wrote: »

When will the people who have €361 million worth of punts spend them I wonder.

http://www.irishtimes.com/blogs/pricewatch/2012/02/10/where-has-all-the-old-money-gone/

When the occupy dame st protest is finished and the Central Bank reverse their no old copper coins policy...thats what the campout is really about.

Paddy Samurai · 16-02-2012 8:29pm

Ole!..........l have about 8000 pesetas .Villamayor here I come.:D

Mardy Bum · 16-02-2012 8:41pm

No wonder Spain suffers such high unemployment when the some citizens have the same level of economic knowledge as a bunch of children in a playschool.

humanji · 16-02-2012 8:45pm

Isn't there an Irish town that's done the same thing? They made their own currency to keep money in the local economy and you can get it exchanged for Euro easily enough. I remember seeing it on the news a while ago. Not sure if they're still at it.