Via adamsmith.org

The following memo, which has fallen into our hands, is a draft
of
advice to the new Irish Minister for Finance from a British
colleague
who has a wealth of expertise on how to handle economic crises.
He
prefers to remain anonymous for professional reasons.

Dear Minister,

Congratulations on your new appointment. As you read the civil
service
briefings on the present crisis, you will come to appreciate
that Ireland’s
problems would be much easier to manage if your
administration could choose
the country’s own exchange rate and interest
rate. However, your officials
and your colleagues may believe that
there is no practical way to leave the
present European monetary union
and so achieve this flexibility.

In fact, there is. Leaving the euro is politically tricky and
economically
costly in the short-term. But it is far from impossible.
The long-term
advantages clearly outweigh the short-term costs, and the
politics can be
managed. The following outlines how it can be done:

1. Announce on a Sunday morning that Ireland is “temporarily
suspending” its euro area membership.

It is obviously vital that this announcement come as a surprise
to
markets. So you cannot discuss it with many people in advance.
The
Taoiseach and the Governor of the Banc Ceannais na hÉireann
must
obviously be informed and agree. However, even discussing the idea in
a
wider circle is likely to lead to leaks; in turn, this will cause a
run
on Irish banks and a complete collapse of deposits, destroying what
is
left of the economy.

2. As of L Day (Leaving Day), all Irish assets
and
liabilities are denominated in the ‘Irish euro’, initially at
the
exchange rate 1:1.

This means that there is limited disruption of cash. People will
continue
to use euro coins with the Irish national side and euro
banknotes with the
letter ‘T’ (for Ireland) in the serial number. You
thus avoid having to
change ATMs or any other machines that take cash.
For the initial period of a
fixed exchange rate (see below), Gresham’s
Law will operate and ‘non-Irish
euros’ will disappear from circulation
in Ireland. You may later wish to take
a leaf from the successor states
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and stamp
‘Irish euros’ to highlight
their national character further.

3. Announce that there will be temporary
exchange
controls pending a resolution of outstanding issues such as
Irish
euro-denominated debt.

On this, you have a choice. You can announce that Ireland will honour
its
euro-denominated debt until roll-over. This puts the exchange-rate
risk on
you. Since a main reason for Ireland to leave the euro area
would be to
devalue, this move would increase your debt, but would
facilitate any
negotiations with your euro area partners. However, it is
an expensive
route.

You may therefore prefer to announce that as of L Day (Leaving Day)
all
external Irish euro-denominated debts are also denominated in the
‘Irish
euro’. That puts the exchange rate risk on your creditors. It is
cheaper,
though it leaves you open to substantial lawsuits.

The exchange rate will of course not remain fixed for long. Nor would
you
want it to. But until the transition period is over, you may have
to rely on
the black market (which you will, of course, criticise) to
provide you with
accurate information about the appropriate Irish/euro
are exchange rate.

4. You should in any case now go for a default –
which of
course you will describe as “a renegotiation of public debt”.
Since you will
in any case devalue (which is a form of default) you
might as well get
everything out of the way at the same time. Offer
creditors a (say) 50%
haircut on any debt that is maturing over the next
few years; or a new bond
maturing (say) 15 years down the line. With
any luck, they will take the 50%
and run.

You will no doubt be told that if you do this, Ireland will be shut
out of
capital markets for years, perhaps decades to come. Perhaps. But
if you have
a primary budget surplus you will not need to borrow much
anyway. Moreover,
history clearly shows that when the only threat your
creditors hold over you
is that, should you default, they won’t lend you
any more money, then you
should default at once. In any case, knowing
international markets, they will
realise that the combination of
default, devaluation and a return to being
able to set a monetary policy
suitable for Irish needs, will actually give a
boost to the economy.
They will therefore be eager to lend.

5. One last thing. You will eventually want to move
away
from ‘Irish euros’ to a proper national currency (you can still
keep notes
and coins looking the same to ensure that cash machines will
work). When you
do, I suggest that you do not tie your currency to any
other currency – the
whole point of this exercise is to be able to
conduct an independent monetary
policy in the interests of Ireland.

Yours faithfully,

(signed)

cc, mutatis mutandis, to Ministers of Finance of Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy – and Germany.