Iceland's population responded "Nope!" when asked to bail out a bank. (Also mentioned here by Owen.)
As the U.S. Congress had done before them, the politicians in the Icelandic parliament approved legislation covering the losses of a private Icelandic bank, a bill that would have cost every Icelander $16,400. But thanks to the brave resistance of their president, the Icelandic people took full advantage of their more democratic system to vote down the Icesave bailout on March 6. A full 93 percent of them voted against handing over $5.3 billion, nearly half their annual GDP, to repay the Dutch and British governments. The Icelandic people rightly questioned why they should be held responsible for reimbursing Dutch and British depositors who were compensated by their governments for their failed savings on behalf of a private bank whose largest stockholder was based in London.
Hmmmmnnnnmmm.
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4 comments:
There's hope....
http://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=8155
My hope is that the Tea Party folks take a real good look at the events leading up to the Icelandic implosion before they hold up Iceland's government as a pillar of economic defiance.
Another example of Dan Mitchell crashing and burning. All hail the flat tax and economic liberalization.
Yah, well, Struppster...
First off, "Iceland" is NOT the bank. That's a privately-held and mis-managed outfit. But you knew that.
Second, both Iceland AND Ireland have problems. That's what's called "the results of recession/depression", not "the results of tax policy".
The difference between them and the US (or England, or Germany) is simple: we have a helluvalot more capital stock than they do.
Point taken.
I can agree with that.
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