Iceland may be the first Western democracy to be forced into South-American style debt-slavery. The IMF, in concert with the UK and the Netherlands, has attempted to strongarm the recently impoverished Island of 317,000 into paying over 3.6 billion pounds ($6.3bn) - $86,000 per Icelandic family - at 5.5% interest for the next generation. The money is not conventional government debt, but arises from the collapse of a private multi-national bank during the financial crisis. The issue is so serious that the entire nation will vote on the issue towards the end of February 2010. On December 30, 2009, after extraordinary diplomatic threats, Iceland's parliament passed narrowly a bill agreeing to pay the onerous terms. Only a few months earlier parliament had agreed to the full amount, but under more reasonable conditions. The people of Iceland must be internationally supported, so they can feel safe in voting down debt-slavery. If Iceland falls, it won't be long before other countries suffer similar financial extortion. Icesave dispute - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Sign the petition
Knowing Iceland and the icelanders, the many will not take responsibility for the gambling of the few. They may just hand over those few as criminals to whatever debtor that wants to flog them, but that is it. Personal responsibility is something the icelanders take very serious, they have to being a very small country where all know all. But as far as collective responsibility go, well, only if they collectively fucked up. And they did not. Only some very few overly optimistic and risk-willing bankers and politicians did. Barely a couple of hundred out of 320000 gained any real profit from the gambling. And they are not stuck with the bill. It may hurt them in the short to medium term, but I think Iceland should just brush off its creditors. The banks in question are bankrupt, there is nothing more there to liquidate. Pushing the bill to the public at large is just not fair in any sense. But by all means, want to prosecute the ones in charge of those banks and regulatory powers for whatever economic tomfoolery, I am sure Iceland will be more than happy to send them off on their merry way to both the UK and the Netherlands.
Banks are companies. When they fail, the people who own them should pay. Fuck, they own a bank! It's not like they're short of money. See, the US fell for the same shit, except it was called a 'bail-out'. Hopefully Iceland is a bit more self-aware.
This is a good way to put the whole bailout thing into another perspective for some of you, methinks. This is unacceptable though, real fucking mass robery.