The golden doughnut for Ill-Conceived Ideas goes to: Prime-Minister Mark Rutte of The Netherlands. Expelling countries from the Euro-zone is not a good idea.

It’s already more than 3 months ago when I awarded the first Golden Doughnut for Ill-Conceived Ideas  (hence: ideas with-a-hole-in-it) to former Dutch Minister Willem Vermeend and since the last one, awarded to Peter Boelhouwer, more than 2 months have passed.

But we have a winner and a prominent one: Prime-Minister Mark Rutte.

The Golden Doughnut

(picture courtesy of Roseofsharonjewellery.com)

He, just like a number of prominent Dutch pundits before him, advocated that countries that fail to meet the demands as laid down in the European Stability Pact, should be forced to leave the Euro.

Hey, nice plan, dear Prime-Minister, but did you think of the consequences of this decision?:

·     That it takes at least three to four years to introduce a new currency in a country?

·     That it’s therefore not a viable solution as it doesn’t change anything quickly?

·     That this kind of operation costs billions of Euro’s: money that these countries don’t have?

·     That these countries are on their own, as they don’t have a Europe to help them in this matter? Like we did have when introducing the Euro?

·     That this doesn’t do anything about the debt that these countries have and which forms their main problem?

·     That their new, old currency will (once introduced) be devaluated into oblivion?

Oh, you didn’t? Well, I did!

So please, forget this idea, as it is an ill-conceived one. And please think about measures that do help, like debt-destruction by restructuring these countries' debt in any either way to an amount that these countries can afford to pay back.

And by helping these countries to generate more future income, due to better tax-collection, less corruption and by creating more competitive skills in these countries, instead of whining on their past faults and mistakes.

And by helping to bring more balance in these countries’ trade and capital balances, as this is also necessary for a sustainable future for The Netherlands and Germany.

In the meantime, you can look at your Golden Doughnut: it is a beautiful jewel (albeit a virtual one) that reminds you that it is always worth to think over an idea twice, in order to abolish the bad ones.

And that reminds you that the populistic opinion is always the easy one, but hardly ever the right one.

I wish you much success and good luck in the coming weeks. I know you need it desperately.

·     That it is a logistical operation beyond recognition?