Posted on 09/10/2012 6:04:04 AM PDT by shove_it
Taxpayers in Europe (and the United States) who have been terrorized since 2008 by government officials warning about economic armageddon, catastrophe, and pestilence should look to tiny Iceland for a taste of how little there is to fear when the experts can't save the people.
Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, recently branded Iceland’s economic performance "impressive." In the last few years the small island in the north Atlantic has managed to shrink its deficit, reduce unemployment, and allow its economy to grow.
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(Excerpt) Read more at reason.com ...
They are also pretty much one ethnic stock and have gdp of $12 billion.
What they have done is admirable, but difficult to implement in bigger countries.
How would you feel if the American government was going to raise your taxes to pay off Chinese depositors who put money in an American bank that offered really nice interest rates. And that bank went bust?
Under our system the Feds would raise your taxes to pay those Chinese. Paying EU depositor 5 billion was too onerous for Icelanders to tolerate
I think it wasn’t a denial by the Icelanders to pay their debts. They were not bound to secure the losses of their banks I think, but I’m not sure about that
The first proposal to pay back the UK, and also the Netherlands, was overwhelming rejected in January 2010 by 93pc, as the island nation’s population objected to being punished for the woes of their banking industry and the high interest rates of 5.5pc.
Iceland rejects UK repayment deal
Iceland has rejected new proposals to pay back the £2.3bn that Britain spent on compensating savers when internet bank Icesave collapsed, according to early results of a referendum last night.
Broadcaster RUV estimated that 63pc of voters rejected the deal in a referendum, while the Icelandic prime minister and finance minister admitted the “no” side “appears” to have won.
The “no” side had campaigned that the agreement would put “an incredible financial burden on Icelanders” and insisted “there never was any legal obligation for Icelandic citizens to shoulder the losses of a private bank”.
Iceland survived basically by telling the international banking community to go cram one up their backsides.
If the rest of the world follows suit its gonna be chaos.
It wasn’t ‘their’ debt. It belonged to privately-owned banks.
This reminds me of the rural problems we had in the bankruptcy during the 80’s, since rules were general, we had a lot of freedom to work things out and there was some abuse also. BUT WE GOT THROUGH IT QUICKLY.
The early ones that filed came out much better than the later ones. Maybe has some application here?
Remember the old Fram commercial, "You can pay me now, or you can pay me later."
Exactly how does one’s shirking of debt, outright denial and refusal to pay such constitute “impressive?.....
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in Ireland, there was basically NO public debt.
NONE.
now, they are the most in debt nation in the world.
because their liberals passed a law,
making the common people liable for the bankers toxic debt.
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in Iceland, the common people refused.
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just as i hope our grandchildren, refuse to pay unsustainable pensions, promised on THEIR future bank accounts!
These economic crises can only be resolve by somebody taking the hit. Until then, all the legislating & negotiation & deficits do is re-arrange the problem with no movement toward a solution. It’s musical chairs: the music is about to stop, and there just aren’t enough chairs. Only when someone sucks up the loss (voluntary or not) will the others be able to recover and move on.
In our case, it’s that >$100T in unfunded liabilities be disowned outright (”sorry, can’t give you what someone else promised and never planned to deliver”), $16T in debt restructured (sell assets and give creditors options), and austerity spending cuts (”can’t spend what we don’t have”).
...but here it will only happen when the next generation realizes a lifetime of taxes will give them _nothing_ in return but forgiveness of the sins of their fathers.
Because Icelanders realize that in a true free market, companies that make bad decisions should pay for those bad decisions, instead of getting bailed out by the taxpayers. It’s called “risk” for a reason. Otherwise, you privatize profits, and socialize losses, the worst of both worlds.
You have that right. Ireland did the opposite of Iceland when the banking crisis hit. Ireland was so addicted to being on good terms with the EU. Iceland was and is in a better export position so was willing to take a shot defying the EU honchos and banks
Discussion BUMP!
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