Here's the real plan via Quartz:
A radical idea to save Greece: Sell off islands like Corfu and Lesbos
Can Greece let go of the lush beaches of Corfu? It depends how serious it is about saving the rest of the country.
AP Photo/Oliver Koenig
A headline from today’s New York Times tells us just how bad it’s gotten in Greece: “Oil Tax Forces Greeks to Fight Winter as Ancients Did.” Austerity measures are forcing Greeks to live like their fabled brethren. Whether or not it stays in the euro zone, the country is likely to endure a decade (or decades) of hardships. At this point, Greece’s financial problems are insurmountable, and each solution applies a small Band-Aid to a fatally-wounded patient. Selling assets has proven futile as they would garner just a small fraction of the $400 billion Greece needs.
But there is a radical answer, one with roots as old as the means Greeks are using to cope.
Two years ago, two German members of Parliament proposed selling Greek antiquities or uninhabited islands. Greeks responded by boycotting German goods. Two years later, Greek employment has surpassed 26% and more than one in three youth is jobless. Greece’s situation is now so hopeless that no idea is too radical. In fact, Greece can do even better than the German idea it once scoffed at: Forget a worthless island with no infrastructure. Sell one with real value, like Rhodes or Corfu or Lesbos.
Who’s in the market for a whole island? Enter the Gulf states....MORE
