Libya End Game: Hugo for Muammar

3 March 2011

I have the solution, and I got the idea from the financial services industry. It’s called a swap. The way it works is, when you have received a loan in hard currency (dollars, Euros, etc), but you operate in a country with an unconvertible or not widely traded currency (Tajikistan som, for example), you can “swap” your dollars, leaving them on deposit at a local commercial bank, for local currency. The bank agrees, when it comes time to repay the dollar loan, to return the dollars at the same exchange rate +/- a commission.

Think about it, it’s a natural. Both are oil rich nations. Both are hot and tropical. Both are run (at present) by ranting lunatics. The people would hardly feel the difference.

Now, I know the naysayers will throw up a host of potential obstacles. What about the languages? This could handled by purchasing a Rosetta Stone package in Spanish for Muammar (“Yo soy un dictador brutal”) and Arabic for Hugo. Taxation? Both could be “made whole” through gross up or equalization.

Call the State Department. I think the idea has legs.

Rupert Scofield

Rupert


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