Iceland's revolution should be old news--if our media actually covered important international stories not involving violence and war. Iceland, in 2008-2009 went through the most dramatic financial collapse of the sub-prime induced banking crisis. Its bankers had speculated many times the value of Iceland's GDP, and their ventures crashed, bankrupting the nation.
Maybe, we didn't hear much because of the smallness and remoteness of Iceland, although Mali is as remote and in population almost as small (Iceland's population: 319,000; Mali's 14.5 million).
Furthermore, Iceland is a positive story compared to Mali, where the former colonial power was welcomed enthusiastically because the Malian state is near collapse and vulnerable to Muslim extremists.
Iceland's banks collapsed in 2008-2009 and Icelanders threw out the conservative government through popular outrage and clanging kitchen pots, not gales of machine gun bullets.
Not only did a new, leftist government take office but a popularly elected body of non-politician citizen members, randomly selected, is helping to write a new constitution.
Further, the collapsed banks were nationalized, and although the left-wing government intended to pay back the banks' private, international debts through taxation--as per IMF instructions--the people again rebelled, and defeated the proposal by 93%.
Yet, Iceland is not an international pariah, despite refusing to pay international speculator debts, and despite bringing criminal charges against a whole raft of bankers and speculators.
The IMF noted that Iceland is experiencing positive growth (ca 2.5%), better than the US, much better than the recession-bound EC, yet it chose not to follow IMF policy. It inflated its currency, launched an aggressive home mortgage relief program, and, instead of austerity, has embarked on development-led growth.
Granted, Iceland is small, homogenous and the first democracy (founded 930), but it offers a model for recovery from the debt crisis that is completely the opposite of Europe's failed austerity policies, or Republican/Tea Party proposals. Furthermore, it appears to be successful. The Icelandic model demonstrates just how far the Obama administration has departed from what the US really needs: real homeowner relief, real control (or nationalization?) of the financial sector, criminal indictments, not just slaps on the wrists of banker-speculators and demand-led growth promoted by government.
The instigator of the popular (kitchenware) rebellion in Iceland has authored a Youtube piece with Greek subtitles: his message? Greece would be better off renouncing its debts and going on its own, like Iceland.
Why haven't we heard more of this? The story is complicated (I've oversimplified hugely), and it's counter to the narrative the powers-that-be, our contemporary Roman Senators, want us to hear. They are afraid they won't be paid, or might actually go to jail. Instead, they can flood the airwaves with the Super-bowl, stories of stars, international disasters like Mali and Greece and their own demands for austerity. Why? They'd rather avoid taxes just like their Roman forebears--which is why Rome "fell."
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Perhaps a nation as large and heterogeneous as the US has to move more slowly: an aircraft carrier vs Iceland's PT-boat. But I do wish Americans could hold bankers accountable, shrink the financial system, heal the housing crisis more quickly, and continue with the kind of stimulative programs Obama had too few of in his first term.
ReplyDeleteIceland is a severe rebuke to the conservative austerians and should be a wake up call for the rest of us.