Iceland to Bankster Uber Allies: Go f**k yourselves....We won't pay !!!

[marmar]

from Le Monde:



Iceland’s loud No
The people of Iceland have now twice voted not to repay international debts incurred by banks, and bankers, for which the whole island is being held responsible. With the present turmoil in European capitals, could this be the way forward for other economies?

by Silla Sigurgeirsdóttir and Robert H Wade


The small island of Iceland has lessons for the world. It held a referendum in April to decide, more or less, whether ordinary people should pay for the folly of the bankers (and by extension, could governments control the corporate sector if they depended on it for finance). Sixty per cent of the population rejected an agreement negotiated between Iceland, the Netherlands and the UK to pay back the British and Dutch governments for the money they spent to recompense savers with the failed bank Icesave. That was less resistance than the first referendum last spring, when 93% voted no.

The referendum was significant since European governments, pressured by speculators, the IMF and the European Commission, are imposing austerity policies on which their citizens have not voted. Even devotees of deregulation are worried by the degree of the western world’s servitude to unconstrained financial institutions. After the Icelandic referendum, even the liberal Financial Times noted with approval on 13 April that it had been possible to “put citizens before banks”, an idea which does not resonate among European political leaders.

Iceland is an unusually pure example of the dynamics that blocked regulation and caused financial fragility across the developed world for 20 years. In 2007, just before the financial crisis, Iceland’s average income was the fifth highest in the world, 60% above US levels; Reykjavik’s shops were stuffed with luxury goods, its restaurants made London seem cheap, and SUVs choked the narrow streets. Icelanders were the happiest people in the world according to an international study in 2006 (1). Much of this rested on the super-fast growth of three Icelandic banks that rose from small utility institutions in 1998 to being among world’s top 300 banks eight years later, increasing their assets from 100% of GDP in 2000 to almost 800% by 2007, a ratio second only to Switzerland. ...........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://mondediplo.com/2011/08/02iceland

[SpiralHawk]

1. "Whine. Sputter. Whine." - The Banksters (R)

[muriel_volestrangler]

9. It't not the banksters - it's the British and Ducth taxpayers

who paid back the first €20,000 of savings in the accounts of non-Icelandic savers (the Iceland government paid that back for Icelandic savers; they told the foreign savers that they didn't count). The governments, on behalf of those taxpayers (eg me), now want that money back.

The prinicple here is: should an FDIC-style guarantee that said it would pay back all savers up to €20,000 have to do so, or is it OK to tell foreigners that, since there wasn't enough money for everyone, they don't count as much as Icelanders? Can a government retrospectively create 2 classes of saver?

[CleanGreenFuture]

2. Kudos to the Icelanders! Americans...not so much.

[villager]

3. We could learn a thing or three from the vikings...

n/t

[CleanGreenFuture]

7. The Syrians; the Egyptians; the Libyans; the Ivory Coasters; the Greeks. And a few more...

Bonus tangent: How many of these revolutions we've been seeing are a result of U.S. meddling?

I don't know the answer. Just asking the question.

[fivepennies]

4. If only it wasn't so cold in Iceland.

Austerity is a damn sight better than slavery, but undergoing both, like we're seeing in the US is intolerable.

[Dawson Leery]

5. K/R

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. Who, other than Iceland, has rejected having 'austerity' imposed on them? nt

[fivepennies]

11. Austerity can be imposed in many ways.

Iceland imports machinery and equipment, petroleum products, foodstuffs, textiles, and manufactured goods. Most trade is with Germany, Great Britain, the United States, and the Netherlands.)

[Amonester]

8. Why not? Last I checked, banksteR$ can be bailed out by the money printeR$

anyway (instead of getting SEIZED of all they robbed, and thrown in jail for what they did) :silly:

[Nye Bevan]

10. Your subject line is incorrect. The Icelanders are not refusing to pay the bankers.

They are refusing to reimburse the British and Dutch governments for the money that they paid to reimburse depositholders in the failed Icesave bank.

The banksters couldn't care less whether or not this goes through.

[rawtribe]

12. Helvítis fokking fokk!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0JFra_sZEQ

http://vimeo.com/6645638



:evilgrin:

[xchrom]

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