Schoolkid's pizza plan for euro rescue earns Wolfson plaudits

Page last updated at 09:46 GMT, Wednesday, April 4, 2012 - 14:46 EST

CNN:

Dutch boy's pizza solution to Greek debt

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Jurre Hermans, the 11-year-old Dutch boy who entered the £250,000 ($400,000) Wolfson Economics Prize with a pizza-based plan for saving the eurozone, did so because he had an idea and the winnings sounded "very attractive," he told CNN.

Jurre, the youngest entrant to the prize, proposed Greece should leave the euro, with the Greek people slotting their funds into a bank "exchange machine" and getting drachma -- the Greek currency before the country joined the euro in 2001 -- back.

As Jurre explains in his application, the bank then gives the euros to the Greek government and "all these euros together form a pancake or a pizza. Now the Greek government can start to pay back all their debts, everyone who has a debt gets a slice of the pizza."

Jurre noted the "clever part" of his idea was that the Greek people would not want to change their euros for drachma, because they know the currency would depreciate. However, if they hide their euros, Jurre said they should be slapped with severe financial penalties.

Read the whole story: CNN