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# QE
The best way to boost Europe's economy? 'Give everyone €175 each month'
What would you spend the money on?
A GROUP OF top economists have proposed a fairly simple way of prodding the stagnating European economy back into healthy growth: Give everyone money.
Simple.
The European Central Bank is currently using quantitative easing. This involves creating cash out of thin air and pumping it into each country’s economy to boost spending.
However, the letter in the Financial Times argues that this might not work.
A group of economists, including Constantin Gurdgiev from Trinity College Dublin, have proposed two other options.
One, is to use the new money created to ‘finance government spending, such as investing in much needed infrastructure projects’.
Two (you’re going to like this one more) is:
Each eurozone citizen could be given €175 per month, for 19 months, which they could use to pay down existing debts or spend as they please.
The economists believed this has a better chance of lighting the fire under the Eurozone economies better than QE, considered an ‘unreliable tool’.
The Australian government tried a similar move in 2009. Citizens were given $900, at a total cost of $42 billion.
What would you spend the money on? A holiday? A new fridge? Save it up, withdraw it in fivers, and roll around in it? Let us know in the comments below.
