Iceland Declares Independence from International Banks

[Muzz]

Iceland Declares Independence from International Banks

http://netrightdaily.com/2011/04/iceland-declares-independence-from-international-banks/#ixzz1JQl4VDKH

[pharoah21]

The ice people are smart

[Ilie Pandia]

Very interesting... let's see if they are allowed to maintain this position.

[Muzz]

Very interesting... let's see if they are allowed to maintain this position.

I hope so too. It would set a great example of the people standing up to the banks. But... watch out for volcanic activity.

[InTheBackground]

Very interesting... let's see if they are allowed to maintain this position.

<snip> But... watch out for volcanic activity.

Muzz, I was just thinking the same thing.

[Lost Soul]

Iceland leads the world! Bravo!

[DawgBone]

The international bankers are planetary vampires.

Great work, Iceland!

[crosby]

Muzz thank you for posting this. i hope that they can maintain a stronghold on this position. tptw aren't quite done with their nwo playground agenda yet. stay tuned everybody.
regards, corson

[Muzz]

Hi all. I think this is going to be a very interesting time. A group of people have called thier bluff and said no. Whatever thier next move is might be a good indicator as to how much power they really have over us.

[Rocky_Shorz]

Under the terms of the agreement, Iceland would have had to pay £2.35 billion to the UK, and €1.32 billion to the Netherlands by 2046 at a 3 percent interest rate. Its rejection for the second time by Iceland is a testament to its people, who feel they should bear no responsibility for the losses of foreigners endured in the financial crisis.

That opposition to bailouts led to Iceland’s decision to allow the bank to fail in 2008. Not that the taxpayers there could have afforded to. As noted by Bloomberg News, at the time the crisis hit in 2008, “the banks had debts equal to 10 times Iceland’s $12 billion GDP.”

“These were private banks and we didn’t pump money into them in order to keep them going; the state did not shoulder the responsibility of the failed private banks,” Iceland President Olafur Grimsson told Bloomberg Television.

The voters’ rejection came despite threats to isolate Iceland from funding in international financial institutions. Iceland’s national debt has already been downgraded by credit rating agencies, and now those same agencies have promised to do so once again as punishment for defying the will of international bankers.

This is just the latest in the long drama since 2008 of global institutions refusing to take losses in the financial crisis. Threats of a global economic depression and claims of being “too big to fail” have equated to a loaded gun to the heads of representative governments in the U.S. and Europe. Iceland is of particular interest because it did not bail out its banks like Ireland did, or foreign ones like the U.S. did.

If that fervor catches on amongst taxpayers worldwide, as it has in Iceland and with the tea party movement in America, the banks would have something to fear; that is, the inability to draw from limitless amounts of funding from gullible government officials and central banks. It appears that the root cause is government guarantees, whether explicit or implicit, on risk-taking by the banks.

full story worth reading... (http://netrightdaily.com/2011/04/iceland-declares-independence-from-international-banks/#ixzz1JQl4VDKH)

Iceland start offering high interest on savings from today forward and foreign investment will flow in without the ball and chain...

[Ilie Pandia]

What usually happens in this cases is that they rename the whole thing and go for another vote... and then again... and then again until the vote is what they want.

I hope they will manage to get trough this.... but I fear they will be made an example off...

This is worth watching closely.

[GlassSteagallfan]

Very interesting... let's see if they are allowed to maintain this position.

<snip> But... watch out for volcanic activity.

Muzz, I was just thinking the same thing.

Agree. If they can't own it, they'll destroy it.

[DevilPigeon]

-----

Well, they can't very well invade as to the best of my knowledge Iceland have:

Never invaded another country
Not acquired nuclear weapons
No major oil deposits
No 'smoking gun' historical artefacts


So, yes I agree, look out for any major unforeseen "natural disaster"

[Wookie]

I can see the headlines now.
Volcanic eruption cause state of emergency. UNs first order of business, set up a branch of the world bank, because banks are the solution to all our problems.

Happy Trails Wookie

[Muzz]

EU says Iceland's accession not affected by referendum!

"The outcome of the referendum does not impact on the ongoing accession negotiations, to which the commission remains fully committed," EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule and Commissioner for Internal Market and Services Michel Barnier said in a joint statement. [source - http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/90001/90777/90853/7346761.html]

Roughly translated "we are still taking over your country and its resources"


Some background.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_NE-72ZXux-g/SghU0ClyKGI/AAAAAAAAJPs/fOaBbcaTolc/s1600/250px-European_Union_Iceland_Locator_svg.png

http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24262


http://aangirfan.blogspot.com/2009/05/iceland-conspiracy.html

[Ilie Pandia]

Indeed Muzz...

After they join the EU they will have to obey EU laws and regulations.

[Muzz]

Thanks for fixing the link Ilie.

[Enquiring1]

ILIE PANDIA I totally agree. They are standing alone and simply will not win.

The only way this stunt will work is if all the counties simultaniously do it.

What will PTB do then make the whole world earthquake???

[loveandgratitude]

We should really all send MESSGAES to the ICELANDERS of support for their wisdom and bravery. Send as many emails to business, council, government, trades people to let them know they are not alone and the world sends them support and love.

[Tahi]

Very interesting... let's see if they are allowed to maintain this position.

<snip> But... watch out for volcanic activity.

Muzz, I was just thinking the same thing.

Agree. If they can't own it, they'll destroy it.

Watch this space... hope those international bankers dont have a HAARP attack over this. What is the name of that volcano??

Eyjafjallajökull ahh thats right :flame:

[jorr lundstrom]

Indeed Muzz...

After they join the EU they will have to obey EU laws and regulations.

Maybye better leave the insane club then. The Icelanders have something called

honour, once widespread but now very, very rare. :playball: :kiss:

[loveandgratitude]

EU CRACKS UP.

An Article by Market Oracle
http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article27638.html

Political upheaval has hit Finland, and it’s merely a foreshadowing of bigger changes ahead. The core issue is whether Finland ought to be paying for bailouts for other EU states. In reaction to establishment support for the bailout, voters ousted the pro-bailout ruling party and gave an upset victory to the bailout-critical conservative party. Against every expectation, the eternal rule of the social democrats is at an end.

But most striking of all are the gains made by a previously invisible party called True Finns. This is the only party to take a hardcore position: no bailouts at all. It also so happens that this party is predictably nationalist on issues of trade and immigration. But that’s not the source of the appeal. The bailout is what is on everyone’s mind. And you know that the anger must be palpable if it fired up the usually sleepy world of Finnish politics.

In the sweep of history, few issues are as politically volatile as tax-funded bailouts of foreign countries, especially during difficult economic times. It’s a policy that provokes dramatic political change. The 20th century’s most famous case was in interwar Germany, when nationwide resentment against payments to conquering allied nations ushered in National Socialist rule.

It should be no surprise that over-taxed Finns have no interest in sending their tax dollars to bail out the banking industry of Portugal, a country that is 2,500 miles and two days travel away. Even governments should have learned long ago that it is never a good idea to enact these sorts of policies. In this case, however, every EU nation is bound by a political contract to bail out any other; the bailouts are embedded in the very structure of how the political, financial, and monetary sector is currently structured.

The entire EU system is afflicted with the paper money disease. It creates a boom that balloons the banking sector, allows politicians to spend wildly, and encourages private enterprise to expand operations in an unsustainable way. Then the bust comes and everything falls apart. Government revenue crashes, banks are threatened with insolvency, and mass bankruptcies are apparent everywhere.

There is a fork in the road, one branch labeled liquidation and the other bailout. When the fiat money is available—and with their favorite interest group, the banking establishment, warning of the end of the world—guess which way the politicians choose? This is why member states are being told that they must cough up $129 billion (it will be more) to save Portugal from its own problems.

It’s not that politicians all over Europe (and the US) love Portugal so much that they are glad to lavish it with more paper money. The real fear is contagion. If Portugal goes, Spain and Italy are next, and then the whole shaky system comes down, first in Europe, then in the UK, and finally in the US. This is the scenario that allows politicians once again to paper over the problem rather than confront it.

Wasn’t the invention of the European Central Bank supposed to control credit expansion in Europe? Philipp Bagus, in his book The Tragedy of the Euro, identifies a fatal flaw. There is nothing that the ECB can do, even if it wanted to, about sovereign state finances or the fractional-reserve banking system that feeds on government-created debt. The ECB can control money injections, but it can’t stop debt creation or the banks that thrive on it.

This debt creation generates its own unsustainable boom. A country’s finances then correct to reflect reality and the banking system comes under pressure. Then the bailouts begin. What ends up happening is that the (relatively) frugal states in the European Union subsidize the less frugal ones. There is moral hazard embedded in the very structure of the entire system.

Nothing is going to fix it. Bailouts are only temporary aids until the next round of credit-fueled profligacy. And there is absolutely nothing that the ECB can do to stop it. Every profligate country knows that it is too big to fail, and that it enjoys presumed access to the financial resources of every other state in the EU. So the result is ongoing and worsening bailouts, leading to total bankruptcy.

For this reason, everyone knows that there is far more at stake than just Portugal. The entire system of European finance and monetary arrangements is broken. It can’t be repaired with patchwork bailouts. At some point, the flaw in the system will have to be fixed (via a hard currency) or there will be a reversion to sovereign paper currencies and the Euro will be chalked up as yet another failed experiment in monetary and regional planning.

Keep in mind that this is the third country to be bailed out recently. Ireland and Greece came first. And those bailouts barely worked. Once we plough through the smaller countries, we will move on to the larger countries. And there is not enough money, absent hyperinflation, to bail out Spain, much less Italy.

The European Central Bank, which has been less irresponsible than the Fed in recent days, is the first world central bank to do what should have been done three years ago. It is raising rates with the intention of tightening money. The Fed should and must do the same thing. But there is a problem. If real interest rates reflected financial reality – with no presumed bailouts and no power to create new money – they would be sky high.

The Portugal case and the Finnish reaction should serve as a wake-up call. All these bailouts and stimulus packages cannot hide the fact that the governments and banking systems of the US and Europe are fundamentally bankrupt, sustained only by the power to create money out of thin air. Each intervention is working to buy time but not to deal with the fundamental problem. And each time when the problems return, they are worse than before.

It doesn’t take a True Finn to recognize the injustice of bailouts for foreign governments. Neither nationalism nor bailouts will fix the real problem. We will eventually find our way back to sound money. But it is going to be terrible slogging, and real convulsions, along the way.

Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr. [send him mail] is founder and chairman of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama, editor of LewRockwell.com, and author, most recently, of The Left, The Right, and The State.

http://www.lewrockwell.com

[161803398]

Prime Minister's Office - Stjornarradshusinu vid Laekjartorg - 150 Reykjavik - Iceland (See Map)
Tel (+354) 545 8400 - Fax (+354) 562 4014 - E-Mail postur@for.stjr.is

[Muzz]

Hi folks

The modus operandi all over the globe for a long time now. Financial criminals bankrupt a country then the EU/UN/IMF/WB gobble it up and steal the resources.

http://blog.marport.com/2009/01/16/icelandic-association-of-fishing-vessel-owners-against-eu-membership/

Heres a handy link to find out whats going on with Iceland and the EU.

http://eunews.blogspot.com/

[jorr lundstrom]

Finland will never pay Portugal. The finnish people love their contry in a very

healty way. They take care of each other and avoid to get involved in other

countries´affairs. This is really injteresting times. And I do hope that this insane

EU-circus is coming to an end asap.:ranger:

[Muzz]

Prime Minister's Office - Stjornarradshusinu vid Laekjartorg - 150 Reykjavik - Iceland (See Map)
Tel (+354) 545 8400 - Fax (+354) 562 4014 - E-Mail postur@for.stjr.is

Great idea. As long as they rebel against the banks lets send some support.

[jorr lundstrom]

Prime Minister's Office - Stjornarradshusinu vid Laekjartorg - 150 Reykjavik - Iceland (See Map)
Tel (+354) 545 8400 - Fax (+354) 562 4014 - E-Mail postur@for.stjr.is

Thank you for the e-mail adress. So lets start to encourage the Icelanders.:horn:

[Muzz]

EU-circus is coming to an end asap.:ranger:

Hopefully so my friend. Time for a light hearted post and what better than a bit of Farage.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gm9q8uabTs&feature=related

[loveandgratitude]

I have written to Avaaz.org to see if they can get a support network going for Iceland. To get 1,000,000 signatures to support the actions of Iceland. THank you the Prime Minster email, I will put it on Facebook and get many people to send a letter of support.

[Muzz]

Well done loveandgratitude Im going to follow your lead. Ive just sent a request to Avaaz for a new campaign as well.


I have written to Avaaz.org to see if they can get a support network going for Iceland. To get 1,000,000 signatures to support the actions of Iceland. THank you the Prime Minster email, I will put it on Facebook and get many people to send a letter of support.

[Carmody]

Very interesting... let's see if they are allowed to maintain this position.

<snip> But... watch out for volcanic activity.

Muzz, I was just thinking the same thing.

Agree. If they can't own it, they'll destroy it.

I want to see them pull that one again. If indeed they did it the first time.

Fool me once......

As for the Finns, as I said in the Finn election thread, 'never mess with the Finns'. The Russians and the Germans know that one. :p

As well, I said:

Please consider the possibility that the EU may have been formed in order to have it break up.

Motives and actions are for creating specific results, and if you don't know the reasons or the agenda.... then observations on realities seen... simply cannot be considered to be, nor do they need to be 'sensible' or 'correct'. That would be an infantile thinking process - To allow expectations and emotions to dictate the ideas behind a given witnessed situation.

Turn the chessboard around (all kinds of different ways) when musing. Do it often. Surprising things will pop out every now and then.

[161803398]

Proves cold is good for your brain cells.

[Muzz]

An article from Globalresearch on the subject
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=24262

[Muzz]

Moderate Iceland earthquake starts off the eruption of Grimsvotn volcano

http://earthquake-report.com/2011/05/21/moderate-iceland-earthquake-starts-off-the-eruption-of-grimsvotn-volcano/

[Ilie Pandia]

Moderate Iceland earthquake starts off the eruption of Grimsvotn volcano

http://earthquake-report.com/2011/05/21/moderate-iceland-earthquake-starts-off-the-eruption-of-grimsvotn-volcano/

So is someone punishing them? I guess this might be too far fetched but still... I will not discount the possibility.

[ViralSpiral]

I love Farrage! Pity they paint him a court jester. He is the only one bold enough to spit in Rompuy's face :D

back to topic...







So is someone punishing them? I guess this might be too far fetched but still... I will not discount the possibility.


mmmmmmm, been thinking about that. some news from MSM:

Deja Vu from last year..... (http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/Ash-Cloud-Travel-Plans-Of-Thousands-At-Risk-As-Ash-Moves-Into-British-Airspace-Flighs-Cancelled/Article/201105415998196?lpos=UK_News_Top_Stories_Header_0&lid=ARTICLE_15998196_Ash_Cloud%3A_Travel_Plans_Of_Thousands_At_Risk_As_Ash_Moves_Into_British_Airspa ce%2C_Flighs_Cancelled)


Obama flies in early to UK due to ash (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1390246/Volcanic-ash-cloud-forces-Barack-Obama-fly-early-UK-essential-relationship.html)

[Muzz]

So is someone punishing them? I guess this might be too far fetched but still... I will not discount the possibility.

I think so. This is from last year but relevent.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WhImLmQFehU&feature=player_embedded#at=113

[Muzz]

Iceland crowdsources its next constitution

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/jun/09/iceland-crowdsourcing-constitution-facebook

[Muzz]

Insight into the Greek situation. Comparing how the two countries deal with this will be interesting.

http://projectavalon.net/forum4/showthread.php?23274-Debtocracy

[felixq78]

Aren't they wonderful ? Greece may be following in their footsteps. Lets hope the rest of the world follows these brave people and tells the global robber barons to F#%$* off. If we all unite in this cause, "what are they gonna do, eh?" ha ha I hope I live long enough to see this come to fruition.

[Muzz]

Aren't they wonderful ? Greece may be following in their footsteps. Lets hope the rest of the world follows these brave people and tells the global robber barons to F#%$* off. If we all unite in this cause, "what are they gonna do, eh?" ha ha I hope I live long enough to see this come to fruition.

Well said my friend. :)

[ktlight]

FYI:


June 21, 2011 "Netright" -- – Iceland is free. And it will remain so, so long as her people wish to remain autonomous of the foreign domination of her would-be masters — in this case, international bankers.

On April 9, the fiercely independent people of island-nation defeated a referendum that would have bailed out the UK and the Netherlands who had covered the deposits of British and Dutch investors who had lost funds in Icesave bank in 2008.

At the time of the bank’s failure, Iceland refused to cover the losses. But the UK and Netherlands nonetheless have demanded that Iceland repay them for the “loan” as a condition for admission into the European Union.

In response, the Icelandic people have told Europe to go pound sand. The final vote was 103,207 to 69,462, or 58.9 percent to 39.7 percent. “Taxpayers should not be responsible for paying the debts of a private institution,” said Sigriur Andersen, a spokeswoman for the Advice group that opposed the bailout.

A similar referendum in 2009 on the issue, although with harsher terms, found 93.2 percent of the Icelandic electorate rejecting a proposal to guarantee the deposits of foreign investors who had funds in the Icelandic bank. The referendum was invoked when President Olafur Ragnur Grimmson vetoed legislation the Althingi, Iceland’s parliament, had passed to pay back the British and Dutch.

Under the terms of the agreement, Iceland would have had to pay £2.35 billion to the UK, and €1.32 billion to the Netherlands by 2046 at a 3 percent interest rate. Its rejection for the second time by Iceland is a testament to its people, who feel they should bear no responsibility for the losses of foreigners endured in the financial crisis.

That opposition to bailouts led to Iceland’s decision to allow the bank to fail in 2008. Not that the taxpayers there could have afforded to. As noted by Bloomberg News, at the time the crisis hit in 2008, “the banks had debts equal to 10 times Iceland’s $12 billion GDP.”

“These were private banks and we didn’t pump money into them in order to keep them going; the state did not shoulder the responsibility of the failed private banks,” Iceland President Olafur Grimsson told Bloomberg Television.

The voters’ rejection came despite threats to isolate Iceland from funding in international financial institutions. Iceland’s national debt has already been downgraded by credit rating agencies, and now those same agencies have promised to do so once again as punishment for defying the will of international bankers.

This is just the latest in the long drama since 2008 of global institutions refusing to take losses in the financial crisis. Threats of a global economic depression and claims of being “too big to fail” have equated to a loaded gun to the heads of representative governments in the U.S. and Europe. Iceland is of particular interest because it did not bail out its banks like Ireland did, or foreign ones like the U.S. did.

If that fervor catches on amongst taxpayers worldwide, as it has in Iceland and with the tea party movement in America, the banks would have something to fear; that is, the inability to draw from limitless amounts of funding from gullible government officials and central banks. It appears that the root cause is government guarantees, whether explicit or implicit, on risk-taking by the banks.

Ultimately, such guarantees are not necessary to maintain full employment or even prop up an economy with growth, they are simply designed to allow these international institutions to overleverage and increase their profit margins in good times — and to avoid catastrophic losses in bad times.

The lesson here is instructive across the pond, but it is a chilling one. If the U.S. — or any sovereign for that matter — attempts to restructure their debts, or to force private investors to take a haircut on their own foolish gambles, these international institutions have promised the equivalent of economic war in response. However, the alternative is for representative governments to sacrifice their independence to a cadre of faceless bankers who share no allegiance to any nation.

It is the conflict that has already defined the beginning of the 21st Century. The question is whether free peoples will choose to remain free, as Iceland has, or to submit.

Bill Wilson is the President of Americans for Limited Government. You can follow Bill on Twitter at @BillWilsonALG.

source
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article28391.htm

[Ilie Pandia]

Way to go Iceland!

[GlassSteagallfan]

If Obama wasn't such a British monarchy kiss a$$, we would have already restored the Glass Steagall Act via HR 1489, and given the 17 trillion dollar debt back to wall st and london.

If the U.S. is ever to recover, Glass Steagall MUST happen.

Then we employ 8 million+ high skilled engineers to build the NAWAPA project (North American Water and Power Alliance).

See larouchepac.com for details.

Oh, and Bin Bernanke should be waterboarded.

[Marikins]

Go Iceland!

[Cidersomerset]

Thanks Klight ...If they let Iceland go a head with this ....It either suits there agenda or they don't care if this sets a precedent....Because Iceland though a 'Brave' little country ....with a population of 319,062 people in 2009 it is a 'flea on the Elephant'......
Financially its nothing to the elite , the only problem is if other countries do the same......Saddam & Gaddaffi both talked about setting up alternate 'backed' currencies and looked what happened to them !!!! cheers Steve

[Cidersomerset]

Hi GlassSteagallfan.....I thought Obama was British on his dads side...LOL...........The other thing is the US do not only owe money to the banks , apparently the chinnese people owns the united states.. dept.

It goes back to Nessara when president Jackson bought the Louisianna lands from Napoleon 1 from the French. Its very complicated and still going on...Any one else come accross this..Cheers Steve..

http://informationfarm.blogspot.com/search/label/St%20Germain

Listen to 4th mp3 recording down......

[avid]

Well done Iceland!!!
However - if one goes against the giant NWO bankster folk - you can depend on an 'unnatural' disaster fairly soon. They'll 'hotwire' your volcanoes to make you suffer, they may even do an unearthly giant quake - but we KNOW if one says NO they get a bit naughty! Lots of love and gratitude to those brave folk up there - and pray for their protection against the vile atrocities being perpetrated all over the world by those manic EMF 'players'. It's like a childhood nightmare where the evil one went mad on an olde worlde organ - hammering all the keys in an untuned symphony. I realise now that there are those in that position doing just such terrible things. The manic ones are still desperate - let's CONCENTRATE positively against them.
Avid:flame:

[Ilie Pandia]

Actually I think that Iceland will make a difference!

They are proof of what a group of aware people can do by rejecting the referendum twice (and I hope as many times as it takes!).

Let's wish them well and follow their example.

[Cidersomerset]

Thats a good point avid I wonder if that volcano ' Eyjafjallajokull' that few can pronounce LOL ....I never thought before... Apparently it is only a minor volcano by Icelandic standards....What if that was a Haarp induced event . A shot accross the bow so to speak......Depending on events, maybe they may set off a bigger one !!! pure speculation of course....but worrying Steve

[pwn_thyself]

Many Icelanders believe in what they call elves, (you know what i'm talking about so just use your words here) and they do things like make major turns in their highway system in order to not destroy or even disturb places where said elves live.

Im sure in return the elves have the Icelander's collective back.

[avid]

Thats a good point avid I wonder if that volcano ' Eyjafjallajokull' that few can pronounce LOL ....I never thought before... Apparently it is only a minor volcano by Icelandic standards....What if that was a Haarp induced event . A shot accross the bow so to speak......Depending on events, maybe they may set off a bigger one !!! pure speculation of course....but worrying Steve

They should never ever dare as we are aware of the power of geo-engineering - which is in the forefront of all 'weather problems' at the moment, the diversion of storms via chemtrails, (they could have directed the wet weather to put out the fires) the hammering of the New Madrid fault (why???), but who knows???? Well definitely to trash the landscape to make it 'useless' so Agenda 21 can progress, and the Soros-backed companies can buy up the best most fertile land to plant their GMO crops ... Surely not? But backtrack on the business planning or the Soros-based/liked companies, and this was an agenda item 2 years ago - IT WAS PLANNED!!!!

[TWINCANS]

Also remember that Iceland has a 400 year history of oppression by the Danes when they couldn't own land, or a boat, or trade freely or any healthcare. Thousands died evry time there was an epidemic because the people were just above starving level. Subsistence farming and overtaxed. When they were finally allowed to travel there was a Big Group that came here to Canada. That's my grtgrt grandparents story anyways. So Icelanders can take it.

[seko]

Talking about Iceland and how great they are, lets play some of their music. Which I think is wonderful. Relaxing.
Name of the band is Sigur Ros. (Victory Rose) in English.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34ZtT4Th9Ys

[Ilie Pandia]

Ah yes, Muzz, I knew there was another thread about the financial situation in Iceland. I've merged them together for more easy tracking.

[seko]

A little more Sigur Ros, now that we are talking about Iceland. This video shows Iceland's small towns. Beautiful country.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CKGOLD_Oaws&feature=related

[Muzz]

And finally the penny drops...

Could Iceland be a model for debt-ridden Europe? (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/9550667.stm)

Great news :)

[Muzz]

25 Ordinary Citizens Write Iceland’s New Constitution With Help From Social Media

The newest government in the world was designed with help from comments on the internet. God help us all. After Iceland’s economic collapse in 2008, the island nation decided it was time to write a new constitution, this one not based on its parent country of Denmark but rather made from the original ideas of its citizens. Iceland’s small population of 320,000 elected 25 assembly members from 522 ordinary candidates (including lawyers, political science professors, journalists, and many other professions), who in turn opened their process up to the public in an unprecedented fashion. The Constitutional Council was highly active on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Flickr, where they solicited comments and suggestions for the new government. On Friday July 29th, 2011, the Iceland parliament officially received the new constitution, comprised of 114 articles divided into 9 chapters. Set to be reviewed, and then put before vote for ratification by October 1st, the internet-assisted document marks a possible paradigm shift in governing. In the 21st Century, we’re writing our constitutions with social media. The future is a crazy place.

read more (http://singularityhub.com/2011/08/03/25-ordinary-citizens-write-icelands-new-constitution-with-help-from-social-media/)

[Tane Mahuta]

Very interesting... let's see if they are allowed to maintain this position.


Yes I too hope that TPTB not interfere.........like fricken leave them alone!!

The World needs more ICE!!....

Awesome, "touchy feelee" post

TM

[Muzz]

Some good background on this story.

Inside Job (http://vimeo.com/25142692)

[aonascimento]

Coincidence or not, i´ve just posted a documentary that talks about, inicially, how Iceland was strong, and stable in it´s financial system and how international bankers messed it all. Very good documentary for a whole bankruptcy perspective, specially in north america, as well as how they don´t mind with consequences.

http://vimeo.com/25142692

[aonascimento]

Some good background on this story.

Inside Job (http://vimeo.com/25142692)

Didn´t see your post.. lol

Well, does worth one more reference to this documentary.

[Ilie Pandia]

Excellent (and scary) movie Muzz... thanks! I highly recommend it!

[Christine Breese]

Iceland was the first to throw all the bankers in jail, that's cool!

[Muzz]

Iceland speeds up bank asset sale to repay Britain £2.3bn

celand plans to speed up a sale of retail assets in a bid to repay £2.3 billion to Britain.

The country was provided with £3.4 billion worth of loans by the British and Dutch governments following the collapse of Landsbanki in 2008. The nationalised bank has interests in Iceland frozen food stores, toy store Hamleys and House of Fraser which the government plans to dispose of in order to repay the loans.

read more (http://citywire.co.uk/new-model-adviser/iceland-speeds-up-bank-asset-sale-to-repay-britain-2-3bn/a517901)

[Muzz]

Heres a good update on whats happening in Iceland

The Corbett Report (http://www.corbettreport.com/icelands-debt-and-the-peoples-revolt-michael-hudson-on-grtv/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+CorbettReportRSS+%28The+Corbett+Report%29)

[DNA]

Didn't Libya attempt the same thing?

[Tahi]

Libya (Gaddaffi in MSM news) was wanting to establish an Oil Currency the "Gold Dinar" ...

Was that the reason NATO rescued the Lybian people from the oppressor?

[jackovesk]

Key Lesson From Iceland - "Let The Banks FAIL"..!

November 7, 2011

Agence France-Presse notes:

Three years after Iceland’s banks collapsed and the country teetered on the brink, its economy is recovering, proof that governments should let failing lenders go bust and protect taxpayers, analysts say.

***

“The lesson that could be learned from Iceland’s way of handling its crisis is that it is important to shield taxpayers and government finances from bearing the cost of a financial crisis to the extent possible,” Islandsbanki analyst Jon Bjarki Bentsson told AFP.

“Even if our way of dealing with the crisis was not by choice but due to the inability of the government to support the banks back in 2008 due to their size relative to the economy, this has turned out relatively well for us,” Bentsson said.

***

Nobel Prize-winning US economist Paul Krugman echoed Bentsson.

“Where everyone else bailed out the bankers and made the public pay the price, Iceland let the banks go bust and actually expanded its social safety net,” he wrote in a recent commentary in the New York Times.

“Where everyone else was fixated on trying to placate international investors, Iceland imposed temporary controls on the movement of capital to give itself room to maneuver,” he said.

During a visit to Reykjavik last week, Krugman also said Iceland has the krona to thank for its recovery, warning against the notion that adopting the euro can protect against economic imbalances.

***

Iceland’s former prime minister Geir Haarde, in power during the 2008 meltdown and currently facing trial over his handling of the crisis, has insisted his government did the right thing early on by letting the banks fail and making creditors carry the losses.

“We saved the country from going bankrupt,” Haarde, 68, told AFP in an interview in July.

As I noted last week:

Iceland told the banks to pound sand. And Iceland’s economy is doing much better than virtually all of the countries which have let the banks push them around.

Barry Ritholtz noted in May:

Rather than bailout the banks — Iceland could not have done so even if they wanted to — they guaranteed deposits (the way our FDIC does), and let the normal capitalistic process of failure run its course.

They are now much much better for it than the countries like the US and Ireland who did not.

Bloomberg pointed out in February:

Unlike other nations, including the U.S. and Ireland, which injected billions of dollars of capital into their financial institutions to keep them afloat, Iceland placed its biggest lenders in receivership. It chose not to protect creditors of the country’s banks, whose assets had ballooned to $209 billion, 11 times gross domestic product.

***

“Iceland did the right thing by making sure its payment systems continued to function while creditors, not the taxpayers, shouldered the losses of banks,” says Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, an economics professor at Columbia University in New York. “Ireland’s done all the wrong things, on the other hand. That’s probably the worst model.”

Ireland guaranteed all the liabilities of its banks when they ran into trouble and has been injecting capital — 46 billion euros ($64 billion) so far — to prop them up. That brought the country to the brink of ruin, forcing it to accept a rescue package from the European Union in December.

***

Countries with larger banking systems can follow Iceland’s example, says Adriaan van der Knaap, a managing director at UBS AG.

“It wouldn’t upset the financial system,” says Van der Knaap, who has advised Iceland’s bank resolution committees.

***

Arni Pall Arnason, 44, Iceland’s minister of economic affairs, says the decision to make debt holders share the pain saved the country’s future.

“If we’d guaranteed all the banks’ liabilities, we’d be in the same situation as Ireland,” says Arnason, whose Social Democratic Alliance was a junior coalition partner in the Haarde government.

***

“In the beginning, banks and other financial institutions in Europe were telling us, ‘Never again will we lend to you,’” Einarsdottir says. “Then it was 10 years, then 5. Now they say they might soon be ready to lend again.”

Even the IMF praises Iceland’s strategy:

As the first country to experience the full force of the global economic crisis, Iceland is now held up as an example by some of how to overcome deep economic dislocation without undoing the social fabric.

While the conditions in Iceland are in many ways different from the conditions in the U.S., Iceland’s lesson applies to America, as well.

Specifically, a study of 124 banking crises by the International Monetary Fund found that propping banks which are only pretending to be solvent hurts the economy:

Existing empirical research has shown that providing assistance to banks and their borrowers can be counterproductive, resulting in increased losses to banks, which often abuse forbearance to take unproductive risks at government expense. The typical result of forbearance is a deeper hole in the net worth of banks, crippling tax burdens to finance bank bailouts, and even more severe credit supply contraction and economic decline than would have occurred in the absence of forbearance.

Cross-country analysis to date also shows that accommodative policy measures (such as substantial liquidity support, explicit government guarantee on financial institutions’ liabilities and forbearance from prudential regulations) tend to be fiscally costly and that these particular policies do not necessarily accelerate the speed of economic recovery.

***

All too often, central banks privilege stability over cost in the heat of the containment phase: if so, they may too liberally extend loans to an illiquid bank which is almost certain to prove insolvent anyway. Also, closure of a nonviable bank is often delayed for too long, even when there are clear signs of insolvency (Lindgren, 2003). Since bank closures face many obstacles, there is a tendency to rely instead on blanket government guarantees which, if the government’s fiscal and political position makes them credible, can work albeit at the cost of placing the burden on the budget, typically squeezing future provision of needed public services.

Indeed, numerous Nobel prize winning and otherwise highly-regarded American economists say that our economy cannot recover until the big banks are broken up.

If the politicians are too corrupt to break up the big banks (because the banks have literally bought the politicians), let’s break them up ourselves.

Many people are doing just that. "Credit Unions Poach Clients" (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203733504577021972358085822.html?mod=WSJ_hp_mostpop_read)

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2011/11/key-lesson-from-iceland-crisis-let-banks-fail.html

[Muzz]

Thanks Jack very interesting.

[Muzz]

Icelandic Anger Brings Debt Forgiveness in Best Recovery Story
By Omar R. Valdimarsson - Feb 20, 2012 12:01 AM GMT

Icelanders who pelted parliament with rocks in 2009 demanding their leaders and bankers answer for the country’s economic and financial collapse are reaping the benefits of their anger.

Since the end of 2008, the island’s banks have forgiven loans equivalent to 13 percent of gross domestic product, easing the debt burdens of more than a quarter of the population, according to a report published this month by the Icelandic Financial Services Association.

“You could safely say that Iceland holds the world record in household debt relief,” said Lars Christensen, chief emerging markets economist at Danske Bank A/S in Copenhagen. “Iceland followed the textbook example of what is required in a crisis. Any economist would agree with that.”

The island’s steps to resurrect itself since 2008, when its banks defaulted on $85 billion, are proving effective. Iceland’s economy will this year outgrow the euro area and the developed world on average, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates. It costs about the same to insure against an Icelandic default as it does to guard against a credit event in Belgium. Most polls now show Icelanders don’t want to join the European Union, where the debt crisis is in its third year. more (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-20/icelandic-anger-brings-record-debt-relief-in-best-crisis-recovery-story.html)

[Muzz]

Iceland Forgives Mortgage Debt for the Population. Putting Bankers and Politicians on "Bench of Accused"

This is awesome. It shows when the people DO STAND UP they have more power and win against the corrupt bankers and politicians of a country. Iceland is forgiving and erasing the mortgage debt of the population. They are putting the bankers and politicians on the "Bench of the Accused." Which means I assume they are putting them on trial for corruption.

Now the rest of people of the world need to start doing the same thing. We all need to stand up and against all the corruption and fraud of the banks and politicians that are puppets of the banks and corporations. link (http://sherriequestioningall.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/iceland-forgives-mortgage-debt-for.html)

uyxzg58JkYI

Go on! This is the sort of thing we need to spread far and wide.
Muzz

[lslimerick]

If you think it, then so be it, glad the icelandic ppl are able to think for themselves, hence create their future, just hope that you doom and gloom (PTB perfect little helpers) have absolutely zero effect on this and THEY will lead the way to this new way of living.....

[Earth Angel]

fricken awesome!!!! yes, lets have all the mortgages of the world erased......that would be a load off!! then again I can just hear those people who have struggled and not taken a holiday for years, bitching about the people with big overwhelming debt getting off ........ this is the part of the forgiveness of debt that I think might backfire.

[modwiz]

fricken awesome!!!! yes, lets have all the mortgages of the world erased......that would be a load off!! then again I can just hear those people who have struggled and not taken a holiday for years, bitching about the people with big overwhelming debt getting off ........ this is the part of the forgiveness of debt that I think might backfire.

If it backfired it would only show why the collective is worthy of contempt. Throwing off the yoke and burden of millennia is no time for bean counting and comparing notes. It is a time for celebration and breathing of free air.

Minding to ones own business is a lost art, insidiously ripped apart by a media that has slowly turned people into decadent and envious voyeurs. Those who worked the hardest enabled the overlords the most. Everyone has both plus and minuses in what has been created. Let us leave the past behind us when we finally are given that opportunity. Let us embrace a brighter future.

[Muzz]

Recent news from Iceland -

Iceland jails former Kaupthing bank bosses

Four former bosses from the Icelandic bank Kaupthing have been sentenced to between three and five years in prison.

They are the former chief executive, the chairman of the board, one of the majority owners and the chief executive of the Luxembourg branch.

They were accused of hiding the fact that a Qatari investor bought a stake in the firm with money lent - illegally - by the bank itself.

Kaupthing collapsed in 2008 under the weight of huge debts.

For years, Kaupthing and other Icelandic banks had aggressively pursued overseas expansion plans, but when they went into administration, they brought the country's economy to its knees.

Just a few weeks before the collapse, Kaupthing announced that Sheikh Mohammed Bin Khalifa Bin Hamad al-Thani had bought a 5.1% stake during the financial crisis in 2008.

The move was seen as a confidence boost for the bank.
Legal costs

Hreidar Mar Sigurdsson, the former chief executive, received five and a half years, while Sigurdur Einarsson, former chairman of the board, was sentenced to five years in jail.

These are the heaviest sentences for financial fraud in Iceland's history.

The court gave Olafur Olafsson, one of the majority owners three years and Magnus Gudmundsson the former chief executive of the Luxembourg branch, three and a half years.

None of them were in court for the decision but it is expected that they will appeal.

The four were also made to pay their own legal costs for the case, which amount to millions of pounds. read more (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25349240)

[Muzz]

In Iceland, the first European country to wake up to an economic crash, people became aware that they could and should intervene in society and started demanding more democratic participation.
The payment of bank debts by citizens went to referendum. The government was forced to create a Council to write a new constitution: a citizens' group - without politicians, lawyers or university professors -- who opened the discussion process to everybody and managed to approve by consensus a draft proposal.

In Iceland, many citizens are now organized in associations and have substantial proposals for a society where everyone can participate.

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