People keep emailing me stories that Greece can and will print euros, so it will never run out of money. Such stories have been running for years actually.

Let's take a peek at a few of them, and why they are all false from a practical point of view.

Writer Valentin Petkantchin asked "Why would an extreme leftist such as Tsipras bother switching to drachmas – with the disastrous consequences for the Greek population and his own political future – when Greece already has the capacities to simply print euros?"
 

His twofold view was twice wrong.

 On one hand, Greece can create euros in a few "clicks" under the cover of the opaque Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) program. Greece is already estimated to have created up to 96 billion euros to help its banks using the ELA.

On the other hand, the Greek central bank is able to turn on the printing press  the old-fashioned way. Greece has the physical means to create any amount of euros it wants.