Iceland Was Right, We Were Wrong: The IMF

Iceland is in the same hole the rest of us are in, just in a different way. To think any country gave the bankers the middle finger, I mean truly gave it to them, is nonsense to the highest degree. Perhaps they did not get everything they desired, but that does not mean you pulled the carpet out from under them. The bankers have been playing the people of the West for two centuries now like a fiddle and everyone gets all upset then "revolts" only to find, uh-oh, they are back! Why does this keep happening? I know but will not tell. We have been warned time and time again but our arrogance kept us from listening and the artificial prosperity and love of safety designed for us have maintained the necessary level of complacency needed to keep the system running.

All of us were warned yet we ignored the warnings because they came from people who did not promise us gum drop forests and bed time story fantasies. They brought us to the window, pointed out it, and we turned our heads. Reality is harsh, no doubt, so we retreated into the loving embrace of fairy tales of all the magical splendor of earthly bliss. When we did become roused to anger, the bankers were quick to be sure all was kept well by giving us a bunch of -isms to smother ourselves in while they kicked back counting your cash and poisoning your children.

Iceland - a beacon of heart-filled respect and common decency in an otherwise bleak world.

Iceland, I love you.

reply to post by dimburg


Who said anything about life there being a bed of roses? We only said they (Iceland) refused to play along with the IMF by bailing out their banks, and chose instead to rebuild their economy themselves. How would it have been any different than if Iceland did go along with the IMF? They'd be in the same situation as Greece, Ireland, and Spain. Secondly, Iceland's economy has largely been tourism and fishing. It was never an industrial economy. When the Global Recession hit, tourism took a dive the world over. This is about their recovery, and how much further along in that recovery they are than the rest of Europe.

Iceland economy grows at fastest pace in four years

STOCKHOLM | Fri Jun 8, 2012 10:54am EDT

(Reuters) - Iceland's economy expanded in the first quarter at its fastest pace since its near-meltdown, powered by a surge in exports, tourism and domestic consumption.

Gross domestic product (GDP) grew 2.4 percent quarter-on-quarter in the first three months of the year to put annual economic growth at 4.5 percent in the period, the highest since the first quarter of 2008, data from the statistics office showed on Friday.

"It shows that the economy is growing rather rapidly, at least in an international comparison, at the moment," Islandsbanki Chief Economist Ingolfur Bender said.

A Bruised Iceland Heals Amid Europe’s Malaise

July 7, 2012

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — For a country that four years ago plunged into a financial abyss so deep it all but shut down overnight, Iceland seems to be doing surprisingly well.

It has repaid, early, many of the international loans that kept it afloat. Unemployment is hovering around 6 percent, and falling. And while much of Europe is struggling to pull itself out of the recessionary swamp, Iceland’s economy is expected to grow by 2.8 percent this year.

When the Global Recession hit, and banks throughout the US and EU were on the brink of failure, there were two paths to take - LET THEM FAIL, and rebuild from the aftermath (Iceland) or BAILOUT, BAILOUT, BAILOUT, reward with billions of dollars the same institutions that created the fiscal mess, so while they are paying off their execs with million-dollar bonuses for being "too big to fail" the economy falls into shambles (Everyone else)

The countries who chose to bailout STILL have their economies in shambles. The lone exceptions might by Germany and the USA, but for the USA it's only been through stimulus spending that we pulled out of the recession, and we are still balanced on the edge of recession.

IMAGINE, if we had the same testicular fortitude as Iceland, and REFUSED to bailout those banks, instead using that same money to shore up the economy directly (with loan guarantees to keep businesses running, or to take over insurance/investment funds that would have tanked under GS or JPMorgan, etc). YES, the economy would still have gone into a tail spin just as it did, BUT, the difference being that once we recovered from it, it would not be under the thumbs of the IMF.

(Again, just to reiterate, no one is claiming Iceland's economy is doing so great they're lining the streets in gold, TBH I don't that Iceland ever had a great economy, it never ranked well in terms of world economies, but then it's a very small country with no industrial base.)

Originally posted by dimburg

Originally posted by SpaceJockey1
Sorry OP and other posters buying this story, but I'm taking all these RAH RAH Iceland comments with a grain of salt!

More interested in someone that actually LIVES there (Spacedman13), to get a better perspective of how well things are there, and so far they're painting a much different picture.

Exactly!!

Iceland totally went bust and now 3 years later the OP and just about everyone else here seem to think life over there is all roses... just because they managed to put a couple of bankers behind bars

Deny ignorance people

Well Iceland is not totally bust now as far as I can gather, (please correct me if I am wrong)
However Greece and Spain (Being next) are totally bust right now as I type this Greece is a disaster zone due to free or almost free credit, buy buy buy and build build build.......what they forgot to mention is repay repay repay......
Regards, Iwinder

Originally posted by Spacedman13
It sure is funny how people only read the top post,,

Yes it´s wonderful here , WE wipe out everyone´s dept , im millioner everybody here is a millioner , we have chocolate fountains and banks have a get a 1000d friday giveaway to everyother customers.

Free money for everyone,, fantasy land fun , yay.

Now that's what I call sarcasm... love it!

Iceland has been the hero country against these bankers over the last few years, and it's incredible and motivational at the same time. Imagine if we all did what Iceland did.

But don't expect the IMF to go around admitting too much guilt. These snakes know what they are doing and will not allow themselves to go down unless it's part of a larger master plan like a new global currency.

It may not be mainstream media but Wealth TV aired a show on the Iceland debacle. Iceland had borrowed 500X it's gross domestic product(GDP). Why do you think Manchester United launched an IPO? That's right they were owned by bankers in Iceland and then became property of the government.

Iceland was at the center of the 2007-2008 pseudo financial crisis!

They should Arrest the Rothschild Bankers here in the United States.

What it meant for Iceland is some of it's private institutions had to go it alone, as far as paying back some of it's failed banks debt, as opposed to the bailout model pushed onto all the other nations by the IMF and international banking cartels.

It set a dangerous precedent. One that the IMF doesn't want to see get any positive publicity. They'll continue to put the screws to Iceland. Personally, I hope those other nations on the brink decide to let their banks fail and go into default, it may start a snowball effect throughout the EU zone and finally break the backs of the banking cabals and the IMF.

Obviously Iceland is not spearheaded by criminals desiring bankers interests, like Obama and Bush...oh and whoever will be next. Probably Romney who will be no different.

Ask yourself, how many Rothschild bankers were arrested in the European Union? The United States?

Now ask yourself, how many Rothschild bankers were arrested in tiny Iceland, population 300,000?

Iceland Dismantles Corrupt Gov’t Then Arrests All Rothschild Bankers

GLOBAL ELITES THROWN OUT OF ICELAND:
Iceland Dismantles Corrupt Government Then Arrests All Rothschild Bankers

Last week 9 people were arrested in London and Reykjavik for their possible responsibility for Iceland’s financial collapse in 2008, a deep crisis which developed into an unprecedented public reaction that is changing the country’s direction.

It has been a revolution without weapons in Iceland, the country that hosts the world’s oldest democracy (since 930), and whose citizens have managed to effect change by going on demonstrations and banging pots and pans. Why have the rest of the Western countries not even heard about it?

Iceland Has Hired An Ex-Cop To Hunt Down The Bankers That Wrecked Its Economy

"On one hand, we have to investigate all suspicion of fraud and offences committed before 2009, on the other hand, we bring the lawsuits against the suspects to court ourselves," Hauksson explains. This is a 'totally new' method which allows the investigators to "follow the case" and the judicial system to "know the cases like the back of their hand". This is indispensable in order "to compete with the well-prepared defence attorneys".

Cenk Uygur Asks If the US Should be Following Iceland's Model in Dealing With the Financial Crisis

For all the fearmongering we hear out of our politicians on the right about how heaven forbid we're going to turn into Greece, the one country you never hear them talk about any more is Iceland. The reason they don't is, as Cenk Uygur explained on his show this Tuesday, they took a different path than the United States after their financial crisis and nationalized the banks, threw some the people responsible for the crash in jail and bailed out the homeowners instead of worrying about only bailing out the banks. And now they're coming back and their economy is growing again.

This has been covered already on ATS, so it's just a reminder of how Iceland did not seek to bailout the criminals running it's banks, instead arrested them or taking other legal actions against them.

What was the USA's response to it's corrupt bankers? We heaped more money on them, and now here we are, being played the fools by the likes of Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan and the Rothschilds.

reply to post by Ex_CT2


S & F - I am just still so amazed at how the stagnation continues and the COTUS has yet to truly take a hard line against the real villians as well as come up with an actual budget. We all know if we follow the money there we will find our answer of why they are actually discussing more quanitative easing and giving themselves raises as they are giving furloughs to police officers, fire fighters, and educators.

We are at the precipice and a change will be forced upon the arrival of 2013 and sequestration.

reply to post by mcsandy


Because it's easy to vilify Cops, Firemen, and Educators, they're just "little people" (serfs, more like). But to actually expect Congress to vilify the bankers, their financial backers - no, instead Congress will not only funnel more money to those bankers, they'll continue to rewrite the laws in their favor.

They are an Oligarchy, and Congress has become totally subservient to them.

Iceland may not be out of the woods as far as it's economy goes, BUT at least they've kicked their Oligarchy to the curb.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


WELL SAID!

Plutocracy has replaced democracy and term limitations needs to be implemented if we are to continue to follow the path of our forefathers where said path is being ahnialated and our children will truly have to brave a whole new world.

just for another perspective...
i'm in iceland, and everyone i know who wants to have a job has one. flats are expensive to rent but property is being bought by people instead of banks. groceries are expensive but then the pay checks are healthy... tourism is blossoming and things are being built again. icelanders can be quite good at bitching about the situation but really it's quite comfortable. compared to everywhere else at the moment! the general feeling is merry. or maybe that's just cos we had a great summer :
much love

Iceland as a nation would rank outside of the top 100 cities by population in US. It is comparable to an average county in Ohio distancing from banks. Should not be seen as a template for a nation like America.

Providence County, Rhode Island is the 100th most populous county in US on wikipedia with 627K, about 250K more people than Iceland. Were talking different worlds, comparing Iceland to America in any political or economic discussion.

Iceland still has a debt that is as high as 130% of GDP(CIA stat) or at the lowest 99% (IMF). Far from financially stable. US is about 100% also, which is probably more significant as our GDP is a thousand times that of Iceland.

Still, it's action carry some hope.

Iceland? Iceland? Kind of rings a bell... ...where have I heard that name before? Oh, yes, foreign country north west of Britain. I kind of forgot it existed, what with the blanket media ban on reporting its continuing success in restructuring both its economy and wider society without a greedy banking elite.

Originally posted by Ex_CT2
reply to post by Blackmarketeer

 

Ah, here we go: One of several articles I've read on this.

How Iceland Stalks Its Bankers

Well said - the bankers need to be arrested and imprisoned for life (or preferably executed) for ENSLAVING millions of people. So the their lackeys in the media, and the government. Anybody who supports fractional reserve banking is an enemy of the people, and a slave owner.

Iceland has turned out to be the one beacon of hope in this valley of death that we are all in now.

You Rock Iceland

Originally posted by MrWendal
I have said it time and time and time again in numerous threads. What Iceland has done is extraordinary and it is a blueprint for the rest of the world. It is/was a Revolution the likes of which we have not seen since 1776 and they never had to fire a single shot.

They told the bankers to shove it.

They forced their Government to step down for even suggesting the Country go along with the Banker plans.

They arrested those responsible.

They reformed a new Government for the people

They rewrote their Constitution

They did not enslave the next several generations into indentured servitude.

Iceland did all this and not a SINGLE WORD was mentioned in the MSM about it. This was not the top story on CNN or MSNBC Money. This story was buried on blogs as it happened and we continue to hear very little about it today.

What does that tell you?

You have right!