{"id":445,"date":"2015-12-14T16:51:01","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T14:51:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ypaithros.gr\/en\/?p=445"},"modified":"2017-01-18T12:10:40","modified_gmt":"2017-01-18T10:10:40","slug":"trading-meat-tires-bartering-economy-grows-greece","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ypaithros.gr\/en\/trading-meat-tires-bartering-economy-grows-greece\/","title":{"rendered":"Trading Meat for Tires as Bartering Economy Grows in Greece"},"content":{"rendered":"

ATHENS \u2014 Thodoris Roussos stood in his butcher\u2019s shop and pointed to a large white delivery truck at the curb. For months, he had put off replacing the tires, because Greece\u2019s financial crisis had cut into business. But recently, he upgraded the van with a set of good wheels at a price that could not be beat.<\/p>\n

\u201cNormally, the tires cost 340 euros, but no money changed hands,\u201d Mr. Roussos said, beaming. \u201cI paid the guy in meat.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Greece grapples with a continued downturn, bartering is gaining traction at the margins of the economy, part of a collection of worrisome signs for Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras who was re-elected on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Graphic artists are exchanging designs for olive oil. Accountants swap advice for office supplies. In the agricultural heartland and on the Greek islands, informal bartering, which has historically helped communities survive, has intensified as more people exchange fruits, vegetables, other crops, equipment, clothing and services.<\/p>\n

Continue reading the main storyRELATED COVERAGE<\/p>\n

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Q&A: Alexis Tsipras\u2019s Election Victory, and Greece\u2019s Looming ChallengesSEPT. 21, 2015<\/p>\n

Alexis Tsipras Given a Second Chance by Greek VotersSEPT. 20, 2015
\nVideos: Greece\u2019s Economic Decline
\n\u201cIn Greece there\u2019s a major liquidity problem,\u201d said Mr. Roussos, who met the tire vendor and scores of new clients through an Athens-based online barter club, Tradenow, which created its own currency called tradepoints. \u201cPeople are finding it more convenient to trade because money is not readily available.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Trading<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

The bartering activity remains modest and will not provide a lasting solution to Greece\u2019s problems, which remain a politically volatile and tricky issue for the new coaltion government. But such efforts represent an opportunity for Greeks to navigate the uncertainty, as the country still facescapital controls and a shaky banking system.<\/p>\n

The latest three-year bailout, which Greece\u2019s lenders approved last month, is likely to only exacerbate the problems, since it requires additional austerity measures. And just pushing through those measures will provide a critical test for Mr. Tsipras in the coming months.<\/p>\n

\"Trading<\/span><\/a>\u201cThe economy continues to deteriorate,\u201d said Yiannis Deligiannis, the founder of Tradenow. \u201cThe capital controls were the last bullet to the head. People have to find other ways to make things work. We are offering them one alternative.\u201d<\/p>\n

Much of it is being done virtually through online networks that match offers and needs, a digital twist on a centuries-old tradition.<\/p>\n

After capital controls were imposed in June, about 6,000 users signed up for Tradenow, on top of 25,000 registered members. Even small businesses that had previously shunned barter networks as unworkable have come aboard.<\/p>\n

The system equates one tradepoint to one euro, and lets users barter directly or rack up the digital currency to get goods and services from others in the community. To attract business, users can also deal in a mix of euros and points.<\/p>\n

\"20barter-web4-superJumbo\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

The modern online systems make bartering more efficient. The activity can also have a multiplier effect in the economy, generating new work and business.<\/p>\n

At Mr. Roussos\u2019s butcher shop, the first 20 chickens and 20 packages of ground beef he posted online for seven tradepoints each sold out quickly, allowing him to rack up points in his account. He doubled his offers, and new customers lined up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt went viral,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople want to barter because they have little money to buy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some deal offers were not up to snuff. \u201cOne person wanted me to trade a Madonna CD for a chicken,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I said no. The Madonna CD was definitely not worth a chicken.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Roussos approached the tire vendor, whom he had met on the platform, and worked out the deal to renovate his van. He paid with a month\u2019s supply of meat and tradepoints, which the vendor used to get an iPad.<\/p>\n

Some advocates are pushing to make the so-called alternative economy more widespread, not only to combat the liquidity squeeze, but also to have some kind of system should Greece ever come crashing out of the euro. While the new government has pledged to keep Greece inside the single currency, analysts said new instability could reappear if Greece cannot carry out structural reforms demanded by its lenders.<\/p>\n

When Greece verged on exiting the euro this summer, the government explored nationwide backups including I.O.U.s, a possible parallel currency or a return to the drachma. But barter advocates say communities would be able to cope more quickly if a barter system were in place.<\/p>\n

\u201cGreeks are aware there are devastating consequences of being in a single currency, like capital controls,\u201d said Helen Panagiotopoulos, a researcher at the City University of New York who studies the Greek barter system. \u201cThere\u2019s a pressing sense that we need to be working together to form something that connects us all, because we don\u2019t know what may happen in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

Achieving that may be a herculean task. Hundreds of barter communities emerged in Greece when the crisis broke out in 2010. Among them was Volos, a port city north of Athens where residents operate an alternative euro-equivalent currency called the TEM. Elsewhere, time banks sprang up, so doctors or babysitters could swap services. A \u201cno-middleman\u201dmovement between producers and consumers cut out profiteers.<\/p>\n

But many of those systems were plagued by inefficiencies. Time banks discovered that one unit of a doctor\u2019s time was more valuable than a unit of a babysitter\u2019s, complicating trades. In Volos, and in online barter clubs, problems arose because no rules ensured that counterparties to transactions would keep their end of a deal.<\/p>\n

Similar troubles arose in Argentina, where a huge social money movement evolved in 2001 after the peso crisis. Scams and inefficiencies eventually plagued the system, causing it to splinter.<\/p>\n

Greek barter advocates say they are learning from those mistakes. As they seek to revive barter platforms, their focus is on better rules and oversight.<\/p>\n

Dimitris Mouroulis, a self-employed web designer, is among those leading the charge. On a recent afternoon, he scanned a bank of computer screens in the garage of his family\u2019s home in Athens, which he converted into a sleek white work space partly with services from Free Economy, an online barter club that he founded in 2011.<\/p>\n

To avoid \u201cphantom traders,\u201d people who sign onto barter platforms and get goods or services without returning them in kind, Mr. Mouroulis requires users to provide identification and financial guarantees. A social activist who says he is driven by an ethos of solidarity for Greece, he has been meeting with other barter club founders to strategize over whether his model can help.<\/p>\n

With just 85 members, Free Economy is hardly a parallel economic universe. But for some, the system has become a lifeline.<\/p>\n

Jorgos Kazianis, 59, an experienced electrician who worked on projects like the Athens metro, had not found steady work since 2010 until he heard about Mr. Mouroulis\u2019s network. He wired Mr. Mouroulis\u2019s garage in exchange for alternate currency, which he used to procure olive oil, food and motorcycle parts. Other people began contacting him through the barter platform and now, one out of every five projects is a barter deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt makes a difference,\u201d Mr. Kazianis said. \u201cI have virtual money in my barter account, and the best part is, there are no capital controls.\u201d He does not trust the banks, and has \u20ac400, about $445, in his regular bank account, but \u20ac600 worth of virtual currency in his Free Economy account.<\/p>\n

While some view bartering as a step backward, Mr. Kazianis said he saw it as a natural progression to relieve some of the misery that money \u2014 and the country\u2019s membership in the euro currency \u2014 has brought to Greek society.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince ancient times, when there was no money, transactions happened through bartering,\u201d he said. \u201cI have no faith in money the way it has evolved today. This crisis is the byproduct of what money has become, where there\u2019s a lot of it in the hands of the few, and a deficit of it for most other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dimitris Bounias contributed reporting.<\/p>\n

source: NEW YORK TIMES<\/strong><\/p>\n

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