VIDEO: No Bailouts in Iceland

Icelandic people refuse to repay Internet bank’s multi-billion debt

People in Iceland have rejected their government’s pledge to repay a debt of more than US$5 billion left by the collapse of Icesave Internet bank. 93 per cent of people voted “no” in a referendum.

Less than two per cent supported the repayment of the debt, which is due to be paid to the UK and Dutch governments, which had compensated the investors who had lost money.

Andrew Gavin Marshall from the Center for Research on Globalization says the public should not have to shoulder the burden of mistakes made by banks.

“The bailout would be for roughly US$5.4 billion, which would go to the Dutch and the British depositors in Icesave, which was the largest online bank that went under,” Marshall says. “And this is basically asking the Icelandic people to pay for the bad debts of their bankers and the bad regulations of their government. And it’s sort of endemic of this corporatist economic undertaking that is going on around the world, where the private debt has become a public obligation. So you privatize profit and you socialize the risk.”


People protest outside the Icelandic Parliament
in Reykjavik on March 6, 2010:

ANdr


Articles by: Andrew Gavin Marshall

Disclaimer: The contents of this article are of sole responsibility of the author(s). The Centre for Research on Globalization will not be responsible for any inaccurate or incorrect statement in this article. The Centre of Research on Globalization grants permission to cross-post Global Research articles on community internet sites as long the source and copyright are acknowledged together with a hyperlink to the original Global Research article. For publication of Global Research articles in print or other forms including commercial internet sites, contact: [email protected]

www.globalresearch.ca contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of "fair use" in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving it for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than "fair use" you must request permission from the copyright owner.

For media inquiries: [email protected]