Iceland Was Right, We Were Wrong: The IMF

[polly7]

By Jeff Neilson

Source: thestreet.com

Wednesday, December 26, 2012

For approximately three years, our governments, the banking cabal, and the Corporate Media have assured us that they knew the appropriate approach for fixing the economies that they had previously crippled with their own mismanagement. We were told that the key was to stomp on the Little People with “austerity” in order to continue making full interest payments to the Bond Parasites — at any/all costs.

Following three years of this continuous, uninterrupted failure, Greece has already defaulted on 75% of its debts, and its economy is totally destroyed. The UK, Spain and Italy are all plummeting downward in suicide-spirals, where the more austerity these sadistic governments inflict upon their own people the worse their debt/deficit problems get. Ireland and Portugal are nearly in the same position.

Now in what may be the greatest economic “mea culpa” in history, we have the media admitting that this government/banking/propaganda-machine troika has been wrong all along. They have been forced to acknowledge that Iceland’s approach to economic triage was the correct approach right from the beginning.

What was Iceland’s approach? To do the exact opposite of everything the bankers running our own economies told us to do. The bankers (naturally) told us that we needed to bail out the criminal Big Banks, at taxpayer expense (they were Too Big To Fail). Iceland gave the banksters nothing.

More: http://www.zcommunications.org/iceland-was-right-we-were-wrong-the-imf-by-jeff-neilson

[annabanana]

1. Boy Howdy I wish THIS would infect the beltway media!

It needs to become "conventional wisdom" as fast as possible.

[Javaman]

34. Don't worry, the corps and the banks are dumping huge amounts of "anti-contagion" into washington

to prevent it from taking hold.

[Teamster Jeff]

2. K&R

[tama]

3. Also:

http://www.bullionbullscanada.com/intl-commentary/21703-economic-rape-of-europe-nearly-complete-part-iv

US and banking cabal makes sure that EU don't follow Iceland's example but hangs slowly to be sucked...

[Little Star]

4. k&r

[xchrom]

5. Du rec. Nt

[grahamhgreen]

6. “an imbalance between rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of all Republics,”

[abelenkpe]

19. So true....

Policies that do nothing to right that imbalance flirt with upheaval. Why don't more realise this?

[cbrer]

7. When does the Statute of Limitations

Put banking criminals beyond American legal reach?

[Larry Ogg]

32. Do "Statute of Limitations" come from monolithic laws of nature, some deity, or an E.T.?

Hmmm... Most likely not!

Or do they come from bought and paid for sock-puppet politicians that are dependent on the campaign donations of ridiculously rich criminals?

I know those are some tough questions, so don't think about it to long because the conflict between what you want reality to be, and what reality might actually be, could cause your head to explode.

[Sunlei]

44. probably wriiten in the law they are past any limit or like Bush/Cheney, it's law they are immune.

[bloomington-lib]

8. kick

[marmar]

9. k/r

nt

[valerief]

10. But doing it the austerity way, don't a handful of very, very rich people get richer?

Isn't that the goal? That a handful of extremely privileged people get as much as they want and fuck everyone else?

[bluesbassman]

13. Cha-ching! On the nosey!

Heads we win, tails we win. Was always a set-up to make the rich richer.

[valerief]

15. Because making the rich richer is *THE* most important thing in the world.

It drives EVERYTHING.

[magical thyme]

11. IIRC, Iceland didn't give the bankers nothing

I seem to remember that they gave a few of their own jail time.

[pacalo]

46. Iceland gave them what was left over -- *snicker* -- after the people were given their money back.

Iceland told the Bond Parasites they would get what was left over, after the people had been taken care of (by their own government).

[FreeBC]

12. Krugman was right

and continues to be right.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/

[Sherman A1]

14. K&R

[Drew Richards]

16. I posted the same things back in 2010 and was belittled for being "naive"

"Here we are in 2010 and after Paulson convinces the American public we must bail out Wall Street not Main Street, with ZERO accountability or the US will economically fail, the banks and mortgage companies are right back to gambling on unsubstantiated securities...what? are we really that stupid? or is the banking lobby that powerful? PONZI-3 You Betcha!

We would have been better off and probably stabilized the partially solvent institutions better and faster by giving everyone who filed an individual 2006 Federal Tax Return $5,000 dollars. IRS 2006 statistics say 133,000,000 individual returns were filed that would be $665,000,000 Billion dollars. That is about the same amount $700,000,000 Billion given to Wall Street with no strings attached but it would have stabilized the middle class, individual mortgages and the semi-solvent institutions. Before you go crying Socialism that's $5,000 to all tax paying US citizens that filed a return AND how is that different than Bush's tax rebate? How is that different than giving 700 BILLION dollars to Corporations while the rest of us go bankrupt? Oh because we are actually helping human beings and not the Corporate Masters...sorry I forgot.

The old saying used to be..."Kill all the Lawyers" maybe the 21st Century saying should be "kill all the Financiers." Just kidding...of course...sic."

[Heather MC]

37. I was 100% against the bailout of 2008

the whole seemed fishy rushed and desperate. it's been my experience that when you make a financial decision in a desperate situation you make a bad choice.

[Warren Stupidity]

38. I was told how irresponsible it was.

I love what happened in Iceland. It is a glimpse of a possible future world.

[Uncle Joe]

17. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, polly.

[oldbanjo]

18. The banking system in Iceland mostly affected Iceland

the banking system in the US affects the entire World and could have caused a World wide Depression.

[abelenkpe]

20. Global economy is still unstable

with many predicting a new recession. Nothing has really been reformed....yet.

[Warren Stupidity]

24. Hmmm. Actually Iceland's banks were being used for deregulated speculation

And were deeply entangled with Dutch and British financial institutions.

[limpyhobbler]

21. kick

and thanks for posting it.

[Wilms]

22. ^

[alberg]

23. Read "The Shock Doctrine" - Naomi Klein. It's all in there in, described in detail. Why do we still

have such a hard time believing it?

[blkmusclmachine]

25. The Too Big To Jail run DC,

and they've got their own private G Men.

.
"Are you in?" asked Rev. Rick Warren (2010)

[lrellok]

26. Um...DUH!

[tex-wyo-dem]

27. Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure this one out...

When the poor and middle/working classes get money in their pocket, they spend it right back into the economy at a much greater rate than the upper class could ever hope to do.

So to fix economy, get more money into the hands of poor and working class folks. The upper class will just hoard most of the wealth. And the banks are going to be reluctant to loosen credit.

Austerity just accomplishes the exact opposite of what should be done.

[caveat_imperator]

30. "The upper class will just hoard most of the wealth."

Yup. Even when I was still in school I noticed that if more money that was in circulation went to the uber-rich they'd rather sew bigger pockets in every bit of clothing they had rather than let any of it go back to anyone not as wealthy as them.

[Farmer Fowweather]

28. Rocket Scientist?

As a matter of published fact, somewhere in his magisterial "General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money" John Maynard Keynes noted that if your rulers wish employment to be encouraged, they should send the money to the people who will spend it soonest. He outlines many considerations that may delay wealthy investors from doing so.

[bananas]

29. k&r nt

[defacto7]

31. Ísland var rétt

og við getum lært mikið af anda þeirra og sanngjörnu aðgerðir.

(Iceland was correct and we could learn much from their spirit and reasonable actions.)

[idwiyo]

33. K&R

[DeSwiss]

35. K&R

[center]

[/center]

[Volaris]

36. "Iceland gave the banksters nothing. "

"Well, what do I get?"
"You get Nothing."

If that quote ends up being true (because there is apperently some doubt as to it's validity), it will go down as one of the greatest Presidential responses in History, because, more than likely, it will the frame the debate for the Second Term.

[WillyT]

39. HUGE K & R !!!

[Sunlei]

40. Iceland also canceled EVERY bank home forclosure and gave the homes back to the citizens.

Banks tried to do the same massive wave of forclosures they did in America to thousands of families, and Iceland didn't fall for that lender-scam.

[lovuian]

41. Austere measures DON"T WORK

it only punishes the people and makes them poorer
destroying the economy

they know that ....the Great Depression was proof

[byeya]

42. Keynes showed the way during the Great Depression and it worked. The Austrian/U of Chicago school

has been tried and has been a failure.

The wealthy benefit, that's why supplyside/monetarism isn't a failure for them although it beggars the poor and
middle income.

We didn't vote for this and we need to keep bringing this up and hammering away if we're to live in a capitalist society.
Personally, I think, we need a bigger share of public ownership of the infrastructure and a state run bank that uses the prudent man rule.

[truedelphi]

45. I quibble with the notion that

"We didn't vote for this."

What part of Mr Obama, at the podium, smiling at Romney and telling him during the very first goddamn debate, that he too liked Simpson Bowles, don't you understand?

What part of Rahm Emanuel - Obama's right hand man - calling anyone who has a clue "retards," don't you get? If Obama didn't like that, then why did he keep Rahm on after the remark?

What part of Tim Geithner, financial crook extraordinaire, who runs around the world and tells foreign banking officials that "Obama works for me," don't you understand?

[Gregorian]

43. Max Keiser isn't crazy after all.

[Hotler]

47. But, but, but President Obama....

went on Sixty Minutes and said that the bankers did nothing illegal.

[lunasun]

48. The IMF loves to go nation shopping!!!