ZENemy
08-15-2013, 03:22 PM
Afternoon RPF
I love this forum and its members, whether I agree with someone on this forum or not its been nothing but a learning experience for me. I mention this because I want to try something different. I am going to post a link to what ICELAND did when faced with a similar banking situation. Now many of you are familiar with what ICELAND did so that is nothing new but I will try to be informative anyway.
Now what I want to do is try something new, I want to post the ICELAND story and instead of 22 people telling me how it wont work or how it wont happen I want to sit and discuss ways that we COULD make this happen, even if only in theory. I really feel that if we spent way less time arguing and debating on what could be, what should be that we could be on our way to a solution. So please, PLEASE just in this one thread instead of cutting people off and saying NO WAY, lets be open and say YES WAY. The internet has this unlimited ability to bring us all together and it works, I see it all the time. Maybe this thread can spark ideas? Maybe a mixture of what Iceland did and some other entity 1000 years ago will be merged to create a solution. I certainly don't know everything but I am here to learn and share what I do know.
Here are a few stories and quotes of what Iceland did. Again, these are just ideas that have proven to work , of COURSE we have a bigger country with a dumbed down public but I'm telling you, it aint nearly as bad as alternative media has us thinking, many are asleep but MANY are awake, and its more and more each day. We the people, the tax payers, we are the highest authority on this land, sitting around gives consent to all that is going on.
Iceland Shows the Way
Nobel prize winning economist Joe Stiglitz notes:
What Iceland did was right. It would have been wrong to burden future generations with the mistakes of the financial system.
Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman writes:
What [Iceland's recovery] demonstrated was the … case for letting creditors of private banks gone wild eat the losses.
Krugman also says:
A funny thing happened on the way to economic Armageddon: Iceland’s very desperation made conventional behavior impossible, freeing the nation to break the rules. Where everyone else bailed out the bankers and made the public pay the price, Iceland let the banks go bust and actually expanded its social safety net. Where everyone else was fixated on trying to placate international investors, Iceland imposed temporary controls on the movement of capital to give itself room to maneuver.
Krugman is right. Letting the banks go bust – instead of perpetually bailing them out – is the right way to go.
Bloomberg reports:
Iceland holds some key lessons for nations trying to survive bailouts after the island’s approach to its rescue led to a “surprisingly” strong recovery, the International Monetary Fund’s mission chief to the country said.
Iceland’s commitment to its program, a decision to push losses on to bondholders instead of taxpayers and the safeguarding of a welfare system that shielded the unemployed from penury helped propel the nation from collapse toward recovery, according to the Washington-based fund.
***
Iceland refused to protect creditors in its banks, which failed in 2008 after their debts bloated to 10 times the size of the economy.
The main things they did were...
1. Fire and jail the bankers.
2. Nationalized the banks.
3. Rewrote the constitution by letting the general population decide what does and doesn't go in it.
http://mashable.com/2011/07/29/iceland-crowdsourced-constitution/
Icelanders on Friday delivered what may set the template for other governments: a crowdsourced constitution.
A group of 25 citizens presented a draft of the constitution to Iceland's parliament. The group, which is made up of ordinary residents, compiled the document online with the help of hundreds of others. The constitution council posted the first draft in April on its website and then let citizens comment via a Facebook Page. The council members are also active on Twitter, post videos of themselves on YouTube and put pictures on Flickr.
Iceland's original constitution was created in 1944 when the country gained independence from Denmark. The country's economic collapse in 2008 prompted calls for a rewrite with checks and balances to prevent a repeat of the financial crisis. The draft was due before the end of July. It may be put to a referendum without the input of parliament.
Iceland may be ahead of the curve on using social media to inform its new government, but it is not alone: Earlier this month, volunteers at a series of hackathons at Stanford University created a site where Egyptians could discuss their proposed constitution.
I love this forum and its members, whether I agree with someone on this forum or not its been nothing but a learning experience for me. I mention this because I want to try something different. I am going to post a link to what ICELAND did when faced with a similar banking situation. Now many of you are familiar with what ICELAND did so that is nothing new but I will try to be informative anyway.
Now what I want to do is try something new, I want to post the ICELAND story and instead of 22 people telling me how it wont work or how it wont happen I want to sit and discuss ways that we COULD make this happen, even if only in theory. I really feel that if we spent way less time arguing and debating on what could be, what should be that we could be on our way to a solution. So please, PLEASE just in this one thread instead of cutting people off and saying NO WAY, lets be open and say YES WAY. The internet has this unlimited ability to bring us all together and it works, I see it all the time. Maybe this thread can spark ideas? Maybe a mixture of what Iceland did and some other entity 1000 years ago will be merged to create a solution. I certainly don't know everything but I am here to learn and share what I do know.
Here are a few stories and quotes of what Iceland did. Again, these are just ideas that have proven to work , of COURSE we have a bigger country with a dumbed down public but I'm telling you, it aint nearly as bad as alternative media has us thinking, many are asleep but MANY are awake, and its more and more each day. We the people, the tax payers, we are the highest authority on this land, sitting around gives consent to all that is going on.
Iceland Shows the Way
Nobel prize winning economist Joe Stiglitz notes:
What Iceland did was right. It would have been wrong to burden future generations with the mistakes of the financial system.
Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman writes:
What [Iceland's recovery] demonstrated was the … case for letting creditors of private banks gone wild eat the losses.
Krugman also says:
A funny thing happened on the way to economic Armageddon: Iceland’s very desperation made conventional behavior impossible, freeing the nation to break the rules. Where everyone else bailed out the bankers and made the public pay the price, Iceland let the banks go bust and actually expanded its social safety net. Where everyone else was fixated on trying to placate international investors, Iceland imposed temporary controls on the movement of capital to give itself room to maneuver.
Krugman is right. Letting the banks go bust – instead of perpetually bailing them out – is the right way to go.
Bloomberg reports:
Iceland holds some key lessons for nations trying to survive bailouts after the island’s approach to its rescue led to a “surprisingly” strong recovery, the International Monetary Fund’s mission chief to the country said.
Iceland’s commitment to its program, a decision to push losses on to bondholders instead of taxpayers and the safeguarding of a welfare system that shielded the unemployed from penury helped propel the nation from collapse toward recovery, according to the Washington-based fund.
***
Iceland refused to protect creditors in its banks, which failed in 2008 after their debts bloated to 10 times the size of the economy.
The main things they did were...
1. Fire and jail the bankers.
2. Nationalized the banks.
3. Rewrote the constitution by letting the general population decide what does and doesn't go in it.
http://mashable.com/2011/07/29/iceland-crowdsourced-constitution/
Icelanders on Friday delivered what may set the template for other governments: a crowdsourced constitution.
A group of 25 citizens presented a draft of the constitution to Iceland's parliament. The group, which is made up of ordinary residents, compiled the document online with the help of hundreds of others. The constitution council posted the first draft in April on its website and then let citizens comment via a Facebook Page. The council members are also active on Twitter, post videos of themselves on YouTube and put pictures on Flickr.
Iceland's original constitution was created in 1944 when the country gained independence from Denmark. The country's economic collapse in 2008 prompted calls for a rewrite with checks and balances to prevent a repeat of the financial crisis. The draft was due before the end of July. It may be put to a referendum without the input of parliament.
Iceland may be ahead of the curve on using social media to inform its new government, but it is not alone: Earlier this month, volunteers at a series of hackathons at Stanford University created a site where Egyptians could discuss their proposed constitution.