| Submit your comments on this article |
| Europe |
| Icelanders vote in neoliberal foreign debt referendum |
| 2010-03-07 |
| [Iran Press TV Latest] Icelanders are voting on whether to pay the UK and the Netherlands $5.2 billion they paid to their citizens after the Icesave bank went bankrupt in 2008. Iceland voters likely will reject a plan to use taxpayer money to cover the losses of British and Dutch depositors in a failed online bank, observers say. The British and Dutch governments want reimbursement of $5.2 billion they paid in compensation to customers after the failure of Icesave bank, which folded in 2008. Voters in Iceland headed to the polls on Saturday, one day after talks between the three countries broke down before an agreement could be reached. Opinion polls suggest the majority of voters will reject the referendum. 96% of them did, according to the vote. But a no vote is expected to deal another blow to Iceland's troubled economy as it could block billions of dollars of loans from international organizations. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #8 If you're going to write it off, be sure their credit status reflects their default. That goes for the Golden State too, BTW. |
| Posted by: lotp 2010-03-07 19:05 |
| #7 The vote is a recognition of reality: there is no way Iceland can repay existing debts, and it is ludicrous to have them assume even more debt. Write it off and move on. |
| Posted by: DoDo 2010-03-07 14:43 |
| #6 and the answer is still the same. no they shouldn't have to pay. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2010-03-07 14:41 |
| #5 A more equivalent question would be if random citizens of Houston should have to pay the debts of Enron... or if random citizens of New York should have to pay the debts of Lehman Bros.' derivatives unit. |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2010-03-07 13:16 |
| #4 BP, Enron employees DID pay the debts the board hid - kinda. Lost their jobs and their retirement savings. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2010-03-07 09:21 |
| #3 Personally I can't think why someone should be liable for any cost that they never signed upto. Should Enron employees pay the debts the Enron board hid??? |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2010-03-07 06:46 |
| #2 I don't have much sympathy for either side, but it's moot whether a government has any liability for the debts of a private company. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2010-03-07 03:19 |
| #1 Setting aside the fact that the poll was moot (the proposed reimbursement package being voted on had been shelved and a new one is in the process of being drafted - that's my understanding), this is an example of democracy at its worst. These turkeys felt as though they were being asked to vote in an early Christmas, for the benefit of faceless strangers in countries with 'much bigger economies'. The fact is that Iceland prospered for years from a banking industry taking the sharp practices we're familiar with to the max. They do bear a collective responsibility: their bankers took the hard earned savings of others and lost the lot. They will pay the consequences, one way or another, but this vote shows that, sadly, they really don't deserve much sympathy. |
| Posted by: Bulldog 2010-03-07 02:54 |