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Icelandic Bankers Are Not Too Big To Jail: Face 74 Years In Prison As US Bankers Bask In Bailouts
As TheAntiMedia's Claire Bernish exclaims, you could ice skate in Hell sooner than see the United States follow in Iceland’s footsteps with this move: the 26th banker was just sentenced to prison for a combined 74 years between them — each of them jailed for their roles in the 2008 economic collapse.
Five top bankers from Iceland’s two largest banks — Landsbankinn and Kaupþing — were found guilty of embezzlement, market manipulation, and breach of fiduciary duties. Though the country’s maximum penalty for financial crimes currently stands at six years, the Supreme Court is currently hearing arguments to extend the limit. Most of those convicted have so far been sentenced to between two and five years.
Do those sentences sound light to you? Perhaps. Until you consider the curious method of punishment the U.S. employed for its thieving bankers.
While Iceland allowed its government to take total financial control when the 2008 crisis took hold, American bankers — in likely the only bail handout given to criminals of mass destruction — received $700 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds.
Thank you, Congress American taxpayer.
Iceland certainly didn’t make it through the crisis unscathed. It repaid the IMF (the final $332 million owed was paid in full, ahead of schedule, earlier this month) and other lenders for funds needed to prevent a complete financial meltdown nearly eight years ago. Icelandic bankers are still being held to task for their illegal market legerdemain that nearly brought down the financial planet.
In contrast, not one banker in America has ever (nor will ever?) be held responsible for their criminal acts. Instead, essentially in addition to the $700 billion windfall — Big Banks are now raking in over $160 billion in profit every year.
Iceland’s president, Olafur Ragnar Grimmson, described how his country not only weathered the storm, but has been labeled the first European country to fully recover from the crisis:
“We were wise enough not to follow the traditional prevailing orthodoxies of the Western financial world in the last 30 years. We introduced currency controls, we let the banks fail, we provided support for the poor, and we didn’t introduce austerity measures like you’re seeing in Europe.”
If only the U.S. government were capable of employing logic.
* * *
Interestingly, Artemis Capital recently asked "Is there another way?" highlighting Iceland...
Iceland, a small Nordic island country, better known for glaciers than economic policy, has followed a very different path and their economic cancer of debt-deflation is in remission.
Today the Icelandic economy is rapidly expanding with low unemployment, high growth, and declining debt even when Europe is printing money to avoid falling back into deflation. It is hard to believe that just 7 years ago Iceland faced arguably the direst conditions in the region. The banking system held assets at 10x the size of GDP after a decade of de-regulation in the lead up to the crash.
In the aftermath of the bubble, GDP collapsed -7.6%, unemployment exploded above 8%, and inflation surged to above 12%. Banking liabilities, mainly denominated in foreign currencies, ballooned to 20x the budget of the State. Iceland accepted over $5bn in bailouts from the IMF and neighboring countries following a run on the banking system. What happened next goes against all contemporary economic thinking.
Iceland did not re-leverage their financial system, bail out their banks, print money, or use public assets to support the stock market.
Iceland refused to promote private risk with public money...
They did the exact opposite and let the private banks crash and prosecuted officials for negligence.
Iceland then treated the disease and not the symptoms by undergoing a rigorous period of economic chemotherapy.
Iceland devalued the Krona, introduced capital controls to stabilize local outflows and foreign inflow of assets, wrote down household debt, raised interest rates to 18%, and introduced more austerity than any European country other than Greece. The stock market fell 95% and interest payments on loans soared to over 300%.
Like medical chemotherapy, economic chemotherapy was horrible, but the cancer of debt-deflation was eradicated and the system made whole.
Today Iceland’s economy has become one of the top performers in Europe with GDP growing +5.6% in the second quarter and unemployment falling to 4% versus 11% in the Eurozone. Tourism has grown +100% since 2006 and exports are up. Iceland began repaying IMF loans earlier than expected in 2012, and by the end of 2015, they will be eliminated. Icelandic debt-to-GDP is falling even as the rest of the developed world has seen debt levels balloon out of control. There are still challenges. Iceland is set to remove capital controls and businesses and residents lament that it is difficult to get loans at reasonable interest rates. The road forward will not be easy but Iceland has hope where there is little of it left in deflation ravaged Greece and Spain, where over one fifth of the citizens and over half of those under 25 years old are unemployed. Iceland’s cancer is in full remission and Europe’s is getting worse.
Risk cannot be destroyed, it can only be shifted through time and redistributed in form. Iceland has taken its risk head on, while the rest of the world has shifted its pain forward for our children to deal with. Every economy is different. Iceland is a small country with a largely homogenous population of only 300k. It may be difficult to fully adopt their methods in large countries that are less politically or culturally unified. While the Iceland model may not be the solution for every economy, the fact it is not part of the policy debate represents a clear failure of our leadership.
* * *
As The Free Thought Projects' Jay Syrmopoulos concludes,
The prosecution of the Icelandic banksters represents an accountability that does not exist in the United States of America.
It seems clear that the financial “Masters of the Universe” are the ones that truly control the political apparatus in the U.S., making it obvious there is no one who is going to hold them accountable for manipulating and crashing the financial markets.
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Your challenge, should you accept it: try to find a mention of this in the US or UK MSM. Good luck with that. Another reason to read ZH.
enjoy reading it for now....legislation is coming to the USSA
The $700 billion TARP money pales in comparison to what the Fed provided. Would that there be legislation to end the Fed! I am not holding my breath.
Call the School Master!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCMHmDnfD6I
Start pumping out nailguns like it's water.
"Change you can believe in!"
That was cleary a typo made by some drunk intern. It was supposed to read, "Chains you can be deceived in."
The $700 Billion TARP was just a downpayment to fund Bankster bonuses for that year. Amongst others, The Fed then purcahsed $1.5 TRILLION of MBS from its shareholder Banks at full face value when, in reality, their true "Mark to market" value was at best 5 cents on the dollar. These will eventually have to be written off because at least half of them are totally fraudulent and the balance worthless. It then pumped in QE cash, using money printed from thin air, and changed policy so as to pay interest on excess reservves. Total joke but, hey, dancin with stars is on and they still have cheesy twirls in WalMart.
"the cancer of debt-deflation was eradicated and the system made whole."
LAUGH TRACK DEAFENING!!!!!!
The Banks did not write off bad loans. Therefore, there was no "debt deflation".
If suspending mark-to-market, off balance sheet bail outs and the use of other non GAAP accounting "made the system whole" then a new definition of "made whole" has apparently evolved.
Not only will there will be no legislation agains US Banksters, the US Banksters will get back at Iceland. Just watch at how Iceland is treated when they need loans. South American and African Warlords will have easier access to money than Iceland.
I don't think there is much need for loans. The state is doing quite well and all loans taken in relation with the crash i 2008 have been fully paid up.
https://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2015/pr15469.htm
There were also loans from the Nordic nations, from Poland and the Faroe islands. All of those are also fully paid up.
The first loan we got was from the Faroe islands, at that time Iceland was totally frozen out of all markets and no one dared to lend a dime to Iceland.
Iceland was on the top 10 most evil terrorist nation list in Britain and terrorist laws were used against Iceland to force Iceland to accept the Icesave deal (basically a deed for the country) and then surrender to the IMF and allow them to determine our future.
This Icesave adventure in question was related to Landsbanki bank and its activities in the UK, who had nothing whatsoever to do with the Icelandic state. Iceland took this matter to the courts and won.
This was a brave move for the Faroe islanders.
Coinage Act of 1849 set the death penalty for anyone who debases the nation's coinage; a law which, if enforced today, would wipe out the House of Representatives, the Senate, the managerial level of the Treasury Department, and the Presidency.
Courtesy of 'The Creature From Jeckyl Island'
I doubt the Fed would do well, either.
A FOI Act request was filed by a now deceaased reporter trying to determine the scope of the US FED bailout. In compliance with that request which the FED adamantly opposed and tried to block- it was discovered that the FED bailed out worldwide banks to the tune of 15 trillion. Like they had a dusty 15 trillion laying in the basement waiting to be deployed on a rainy day. Such chicanery.
I tell you this from memory. I had the details bookmarked on my site "Frankenstein Government" I am gonna go search the site and see if I can find it again. It may have been on ZH as well.
Found it. Read this shit. http://www.blacklistednews.com/Audit_of_the_Federal_Reserve_Reveals_%241...
Here's the list, it was actually 16 trillion. Can you believe that shit? If the FED didn't short gold thru it's proxies, it would be 5k an ounce.
The list of institutions that received the most money from the Federal Reserve can be found on page 131of the GAO Audit and are as follows..
That's ONLY about $5000 per US citizen.
I'm sure whoever received it used it responlsibly!
What legislation are you talking about? I don't see any serious threats to the banks grip on us. Many understand what should be done, but who with any authority wiil or can act? Most in leadership positions are part of the problem and will never be part of the solution.
The big banks need to be broken up. Glass-Steagall needs to be brought back in a more rigid form, creating an absolute firewall between basic banking and all forms of other invetsment banking, real estate ownership, insurance companies, etc. All of these things are functions for private businesses to be totally managed with private capital and private risk. No mega corporation should have taxpayers on the hook for any type of bailout.
Basic banking is actually a pretty simple business, and works very well when kept smaller and localized. In fact, if we wanted a National Bank to handle essential checking and savings operations, we could turn it over to the Post Office, and pump badly needed revenue into an essential public service that is currently struggling under competition from the private sector, and made worse by Congressional mandates that prevent them from becoming more competitive while draining cash flow with heavy handed requirements to fund retiement programs.
There are many things we could do, but bribery & collusion are keeping us from doing them.
Agreed.
Glass-Steagall is the canary in the coal mine.
Any politician that proposes a solution without re-instating Glass-Steagall and separating and breaking up the banks is just a sold prostitute.
Financial reforms put in place after 2008 were just showmanship.
Ummm... this is a theme covered on ZH for 5 years. Well stated however.
The trick is to get it covered outside of ZH
Not many reasons today. A lot of comenters are think-tanks emploeyees. They are usually the first to jump in and write distracting walls of nonsense.
Look over here at this heartwarming story. Khloe Kardashian and Lamar Idom back together.
http://hollywoodlife.com/2015/10/23/khloe-kardashian-baby-lamar-odom-pre...
(I cannot believe how an unattractive two bit media whore and a has-been basketball player can garner so much media attention. I guess this is the circus part of bread and circuses.)
Oddly, it's always "Headline News" on the Yahoo front page and HuffPo.
Hey, impotent things are impotant to da peeples. All part of Huxley's dumbing down da peeples predictions.
Negative click every post that mentions them. They are paid for articles by the Kardashian business model. No click, no business. Including message bords.
No doubt, the comments section has badly deteriorated.
Between the shills for one side or the other, and the emotionally stunted misogynists who take turns coming up with evermore obscene descriptions of females, it is harder to find the informed arguments from both sides of an issue. There seems to be a rising number of emotion driven commenters who only contribute derogatory remarks in a pile on fashion, which extends the threads and makes intelligent conversation virtually impossible.
I really do love the site. The steady flow of compelling news is like trying to drink from a fire hose, but the comments section too often devolves into something too tedious to bother with.
This. I generally try to refrain from commenting for that reason. Though, every once in a while the far-right fringes around here still stir me into issuing a counterpunch.
Too funny. Speaking of trolls...
When is that cannibal going to eat the white baby, they are already cannibalizing benefits in Europe
The left wing extremist are the ones that induce me to comment.
You don't know how to punch.... accordeing to your fellow muslim Swedes.
Obvious solution: Learn to scan for words of emotion and nonsense. Look for; USSA, F@ck (and others), one or two liners. And even then some comments are well written nonsense by F@cking Libtards. :-)
whenever I see the word "libtard" I know the commenter is a mindless shill too...
sorry that you missed the smiley face after the 'libtard' in lieu of /sarc.
"the emotionally stunted misogynists"
Dreaming all night about posting that gem no doubt?
Oh, is that a hit dog I hear barking?
Your comment adds to the deterioration.
Perhaps, and everyone has an opinion.
On the other hand, there seem to be quite a few here who know what I am talking about and agree with me. Having to wade through filth from grown, so-called men who sound like potty mouthed brats is not at all interesting to those whose mental development reaches beyond adolescence.
Of course, I do realize who I'm addressing, so trip on, and have a few laughs on me. Love the image your moniker conjures up.
it's sickening isn't it. maybe we should petition the icelandic government to hang the fuckers. that should be sufficient to get it in the western news.
We don't seem to be in a position to even send Iceland an email asking for anything.
They have NADs, we have none.
Their Banksters work for them, we work for our Banksters.
It just goes down hill from there.
This is the reason the corrupt FED does whatever it pleases>> https://goo.gl/2SIIh0
No.
The real challenge would be to implement this action in the USA, UK, or MSM.
Helpful hint - the jails for bankster / stawk offenders should be at landfill sites with a ready supply of overburden.
Lay them all down to sleep, and Cat D-10 several hundred cubic yards of fill over top of them.
Why ? Because, deep down, they are good people. And, maintenance free, too.
Low cost incarceration, my new crowdfunding model.
TRUMP
Because our bankers got a get out of jail free card from our criminal, corrupt, self serving politicians in the Justus Department, CONgress, Boosh, and the current Cocksucker in Chief.
Ireland is going after their banksters as well:
http://wellesley.wickedlocal.com/article/20151014/NEWS/151018252
Maybe the start of a new trend?
Maybe if self-serving phoneys like Sting and Bono started singing about "All wars are bankers' wars", then we'd see hints of change?
Then they'd be guaranteed to die on tour as their plane went down or their hot tub electrified. Totally by accident after the CIA maintenance crew worked on either.
Maybe if self-serving phoneys like Sting and Bono started singing about "All wars are bankers' wars", then we'd see hints of change?
Speaking of which here's an Irishman who didn't sell out on just that topic!
He's not Irish.
Good song though.
+1 for 'Justus Department'.
They also pretend to make the Nation's money Sovereign again, taking away the power of money creations from private banks. Also, their president is a notorious Milton Freedman hater.
Well, at least one country is fighting Zionism. Let's see how much time they will last.
Iceland has just become another "Evil Empire".
Doom Descends. Hire "food tasters", now.
"They also pretend to make the Nation's money Sovereign again, taking away the power of money creations from private banks."
This is the monetary reform idea you mention http://www.forsaetisraduneyti.is/media/Skyrslur/monetary-reform.pdf
Iceland is increasing the use of cash in the economy, unlike most other Nordic nations.
This link shows the use of cash in the system.
http://hagtolur.sedlabanki.is/data/set/5258/bankakerfi-peningamagn#!ds=5258!8ub8=a.c&display=line
If we compare this to Sweden she used 109 bn SEK in 2007 but now its down to 78 bn. They are planing to reduce the use of cash considerably.
Denmark is on the same path, and ideas about a cashless society are being considered.
We jailed some folks.
Maybe we could outsource our issues to Iceland's government? Wonder if they would work a little cheaper than our boys? We sure wouldn’t be risking much?
Fuck the US government. Corrupt thieves
Tylers, FYI, when using the Google Chrome browser to read this article, the "Page Not Found" error message pops up.
Can't think of a good reason to use Chrome given Google is becoming something like the Ministry of Truth.
There's a clue to that in the message you are getting.
It serves no purpose to keep bringing up Iceland and what they did to their bankers. This will never, ever happen in the U.S. because of the vast amount of corruption, good ole boy syndrome and crony capitalism (redundant, I know). We love pointing fingers and making fun of others but we don't and won't look in the mirror.
WE look. WE see. WE have no power. WE are ruled.
WE allow it.
Now football.
Clearly Iceland needs its immigration policy revised, and open its airport to Multi-Culti souls. /s
It could avoid hurt feelings.
Sweet!
Too bad Obama's buddy, Eric Holder, gave a get out of jail card to Goldman Sachs, JPM and AIG.
The citizens of Iceland *egged* the MP's as the politcos entered the Parliament in 2009. There were massive protests; people carrying torches surrounded the PM's home at twilight. I saw incredible medieval-looking photos that I'll never forget, which is fortunate because I can no longer find them on the internet. The PM was put on trial but he appealed to the European courts where the case stalled...no need to wonder why.
The American people learned the futility of protests during the Vietnam War. Popular protests have no effect on criminal governments. I was part of that 1960's anti-war movement. It was one of the most massive human protests in history. Soldiers mounted machine gun nests on the steps of the Capitol in Washington! I did not even try to find those photos in the internet land of channeled searches and historical revisionism...maybe someone else can find some.
Freedom? Pure fantasy. You're free as long as you do not break any of the rules and not a minute longer.
I was there too. DC was a mad-house. Seems those protests were only given societal approval after the war. When people realized they had sacrificed their sons for a political debacle.
We need similar protests NOW. It's the only way to get the truth out. Sadly, until there's another draft it won't happen.
You are free as long as you are not caught breaking the rules.
In Iceland we have have a constitution that has a section in it number 14 that allows for a court called Landsdómur, it protects the state against corruption in politics.
The former prime minister, Geir Haarde was found guilty by Landsdómur court for not sharing important information with other members of the government, but according to the constitution he was legally bound to share all information .
Right after the court passed its verdict he went outside to talk to the press, red in the face, screaming about the injustice and then admitted exactly what he was accused of.
He said that he saw himself as some kind of a foreman for the Independence party, and Ingibjörg Sólrún, the leader of the other coalition party as the foreman of the Social democrats.
They would decide who was in the "loop" and who was left out of it.
There were 2 other ministers who were supposed to be taken to court as well, Björgvin G Sigurdsson minister of commerce and Ingibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir minister of foreign affairs.
Those 2 managed to escape the court. Apart from the usual political backstabbing, i guess the reason could be that Bjorgvin was a Muppet that was never told anything, and Ingibjörg got brain cancer.
Some politicians cried over the terrible injustice of using more than a 100 years old law against them.
It was actually the president residence that was surrounded with masses of people holding red flairs, this was to inspire the president to use a safety valve in the constitution where the president can refuse to sign laws coming from the parliament and referring the decision to the people of Iceland by referendum.
This was because of the Icesave deal, a problem that a privately owned bank called Landsbanki created in its subsidiary in the UK.
We did get that referendum and rejected the Icesave deal.
Geir Haarde resigned shortly after Landsdomur, due to pressure for the public and most of the people who were in the govt were finished in politics after this.
All 3 central bank governors were fired as well.
Thanks for the story and the correction...interesting.
The picture you were thinking of is probably from the protest at the president residence.
http://raksig.blog.is/users/33/raksig/img/2raudur.jpg
We were lucky to have a brilliant president that stands by his people and country 100%.
This one is Geir Haarde prime minister going home from work shortly before resigning.
http://img.visir.is/apps/pbcsi.dll/storyimage/XZ/20100104/FRETTIR01/2185...
Baldur Gudlaugsson who was permanent secretary was sentenced to 2 years in prison for insider trading.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-02-17/iceland-court-upholds-...
It was his case that was referred to the European court of justice, but it was thrown out. I don't think Geir's case was ever sent to the court.
Perfect timing for this article. Right before Halloween. Thanks to suspension FASB mark-to-market accounting we stll have zombie banks allowed to roam the streets. Reminds me of "The Walking Dead". Also thanks to that POS Dodd-Frank and TBTF, they're bigger and badder than ever. Think Godzilla. Glass-Steagall worked. The Pecora Commission worked. People went to jail last time around. What we have today is Kabuki Theatre. No substance. No hope of change.
The bailouts were all about Wall St. and Crony Capitalism; they were not at all about Main St., even though the cause was clearly Wall St. Hey what do you expect from Oligarchy/Plutocracy and suspension of the Rule of Law. Laws are for little people.
"We're essentially continuing a system where profits are privatized and...losses socialized," - Nouriel Roubini
"The issue which has swept down the centuries and which will have to be fought sooner or later is the people versus the banks." – Lord Acton
“I have had men watching you for a long time and I am convinced that you have used the funds of the bank to speculate in the breadstuffs of the country. When you won, you divided the profits amongst you, and when you lost, you charged it to the Bank. ... You are a den of vipers and thieves.” - Andrew Jackson, 1834, on closing the Second Bank of the United States; (unabridged form, extended citation)
Iceland got it right. Just like disciplining a child; no consequences, no barrier to bad (in this case criminal) behavior. There has been NO cleansing of the financial system. We still have maximum moral hazard. Example: Hillary Clinton should be wearing an orange jumpsuit and in a Federal prison, and yet she’s running for our nation’s highest office. Public Servant indeed. To say that the American public has been “dumbed down” would be an understatement. Usefull idiots indeed. Obama put the same people that caused the financial meltdown in charge of the financial system again. No justice. No sanity.
Restore the Rule of Law.
You mean "The Perp-Walking Dead" ?
Maybe I should've asked your permission first, but I sent your comment in its entirety, and attributed to you, to my congressman, with a link to the article couched within my own personal commentary that began with "let me help you with your continuing education", and "read this if you can be bothered", that I ended with this:
You owe my child a future. You and all your Congressional friends on both sides of the aisle.
I could've used criminal instead of Congressional--means the same to me either way.
Of course, I'm not expecting anything to come of it, but we do what we can, us little people. God is watching.
OK, and good luck. Our Representatives only represent their campaign contributors and K Street lobbyists. The system is rotten to the core. We've come full circle; back to "Taxation without representation". We all know where that leads.
"The government who robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul." - George Bernard Shaw
“He that pays the piper calls the tune.” – Proverb
“Being democratic is not enough, a majority cannot turn what is wrong into right. In order to be considered truly free, countries must also have a deep love of liberty and an abiding respect for the rule of law.” - Margaret Thatcher
Neither party is really any different.
“I abandoned free market principles to save the free market system.”–George W. Bush, on CNN, December 16, 2008
"America has a debt problem and a failure of leadership. Americans deserve better. I therefore intend to oppose the effort to increase America’s debt limit." - Sen. Barack Obama, March 16, 2006
"How do you know when a politician is lying? His lips are moving." - Favorite Old Joke
"There ain't no ticks like poly-ticks. Bloodsuckers all."- Davy Crockett
Hey Tyler!...
When you succeed in putting that Monopoly image and this story on the top half front page of the WSJ, NYTs and Wa-Po let's party!
Long Viking prison rape gangs...
and sandy vasoline.
The U.S. is 1000 times the size of Iceland both in terms of population and GDP. By that scale, we should've jailed 26,000 bankers. While at first blush that might seem to overstate the failure of the U.S. Miscarriage of Justice Department, it's actually far too low when you look at what happened after the S&L crisis.
By consersative estimates, the financial crisis of 2008 cost around $13 trillion, 100 times bigger than the $125 billion S&L crisis. But in the latter case, the U.S. jailed about 1000 bankers. Using that scale suggests that the Miscarriage of Justice Department has fallen 100,000 bankers short of doing its job.
What's happened in the U.S. isn't so much a financial crisis as it is a legal crisis of unprecedented size. It dwarfs Watergate, which was considered a constitutional crisis all on its own.
The so-called financial crisis isn't over by a long shot. It's just warming up.
......26,000, and that doesn't even count the politicians who should be hung.
Think of the Financial crisis as a series of waves.
If the next one, probably next few years, is not dealt with harshly, the US will crumble into some shell of its past and deserves EVERYTHING it will get.
yep, I remember the bankers being trot-ed out at the whitehouse after the collapse, as our knights in shining armour, despicable.
Good for Iceland. It's a feelgood story but Iceland's example is not relevant to the rest of the word. Iceland is a democracy ... perhaps the last one on Earth. The rest, like the US and western Europe, are plutocracies run by a handful of financial gangsters.
And Iceland is full of artists, intellectuals, thinkers - in short, full of those who are mocked and ridiculed here in the Greatest Country in the WorldTM.
Yes Iceland is White.
Actually there are quite a few immigrants in Iceland, and they seem to be able to blend into Icelandic socitety without any problems at all.
We have a rather simple religion system where the wast majority is Christian and there are few religious extremists to be found in Iceland. Icelanders are rather relaxed in religious matters.
The Evangelical Lutheran church has 240.395 members out of a total of 330.000 population.
12207 are Catholics, only 1000 Buddhists, 1000 Muslims, 3000 Asatruar (the old pagan religion), some 60 to 90 people of Jewish religion.
There are a few thousand of other religions, like Jehovah witnesses, we have 666 of those :)
http://www.visir.is/skradir-felagar-i-vottum-jehova-eru-666/article/2015...
I guess one of the reasons Iceland is such a peaceful place is that there are not that many things people can argue over.
I remember a then newly elected female Icelandic Parliamentary member (her name escapes me at the moment) in interview when asked to sum up what the solution was to bankers finding new ways to destroy themselves and bringing down all with themselves. Her simple laconic reply "Let them fail...let them fail".
You don't have to refer to Iceland.
Look at how many bankers and a few congressmen (McCain) were tainted and jailed over the S&L debacle.
After that, the US bankers put in place a system where they would never be prosecuted.
Come on. Are bankers bad and all the rest of the people good???
Wasn't monetary policy too relaxed which brought the bubble? Isn't the post-bubble high-inflation policy a type of theft? Isn't high public debt also a type of theft? Aren't 50% taxes on income a type of theft?
Please don't believe that politicians are the good and the bankers are the bad. There all kind of greys in the middle.
I am very happy sending all greys to jail as well.
This either or crap is part of the problem.
I think I read somewhere that the FBI said it was too difficult prosecute financial crimes due to complexity... So they just watched porn instead.
The British Serious Fraud Office said the same thing.
This is of course wrong, anyone who wants to understand the criminality in the financial sector can quite easily do that.
Its just a question looking past all the lies and bullshit, when you have done that there is little left.
Any country that elects a dumb black muslim leader is screwed
Any country with musloids is screwed.
iceland is awesome.
We all need some awe.
Lots of dickheads need to be tossed in jail not just bankers thats for sure.
Somewhere somebody said all this was ok. That person The Man needs to be delt with.
Iceland's prisons are like 4 star hotel according to some observers
When you look at the collusion between congress (Barney Frank for example) and their boyfriends (at Freddie Mac) and the lack of prosecution for same, you realize the American banking system is as corrupt as the people elected to monitor/police them.
The US bankers have put in place a system where they will never go to jail.
There is no reason why Angelo and all those congresspeople who got "loans" from him (Countrywide) should not be prosecuted.
Every person depriving someone of one's money is guilty . Pickpockets are put to jail .Why not big bankers ? The Icelandic system respects JUSTICE .
To be fair, the population and demographics of Iceland are equilvalent to a suburb in the US. Many cities alone are far bigger than Iceland's entire population. It's easy to jail bankers when everyone knows everyone else over there.
It's pretty easy to jail bankers and any other criminal, including government if you are a nation of law rather than precedent.
It will be better when the system blows up in the US. It needs to be destroyed, not made whole.
I believe the Wall Street "Uncle Tom" Eric Holder said something to the effect that it would be harmful and perilous to our financial system to criminally charge bankers - before he retired back to his law firm defending financial industry types.
He basically confirmed that Moral Hazard existed and was promoted throughout his tenure.
Now that Iceland has made itself debt free they need to import and fund some hispanics and syrians. Its only fair.
rule of law, ah, what a quaint barbaric relic of civilization.
It helped immensely that Iceland doesn't have a standing army financed with bank credit that could remove a government committed to punishing bankers.
oops
Wish we would do the same with our banksters in Germany... and this will not longer be satire http://www.der-postillon.com/2012/12/deutsche-bank-direkt-zu-gefangnis.html ;-)
Maybe I finally figured out where I want to move to.
Go get em and when Sen Angus King was there a week ago remember these:
http://www.themainewire.com/2012/03/developing-king-wind-project-cited-c...
http://www.lisbonreporter.com/2012/08/angus-king-is-nice-guy-even-though...
How the sentence should be calculated ;
Divide the amount swindled by cabal banksters & corporates by minimum wage per day.
This gives the number of days.
Divide by 365.25 (days per year)
Now u get no. of years.
----
So for a trillion $ , how many years ?
Rather how many million years , say X
By that time this guy (like Jamie dimon & others of Goldman Sachs, Merrillynch, citi, et all) will be reborn thousands of times and swindled so many times (if not in hell).
So now you can multiply X again
and again...
My head aches
KARMA
Simply amazing! Iceland: a country NOT controlled by and for the Crony Capitalist, Banking Gangster Elites! Once upon a time it would have been America in that role, too. How far, far, far we've fallen! I'm ashamed to be an American.