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Debt Moratorium with 1%Tax? The Arctic Mouse that Roared
From Webster Tarpley:
In a possible preview to coming economic events in the United States, an Iceland political leader called for a Debt Moratorium to join other countries and a 1% Transaction Tax as her government crumbles:
REYKJAVIK, Iceland — A leading member of the Icelandic parliament called Monday night for the country to declare a debt moratorium and stop attempting to pay the $6 billion which the British and Netherlands governments are seeking to extort from Iceland with the help of the International Monetary Fund and the European Commission in Brussels.
This call was issued by Birgitta Jónsdóttir, chairman of the parliamentary faction of The Movement in the Icelandic parliament, the Althing. Birgitta Jónsdóttir was speaking during a special session of the Althing called to address the rapidly deteriorating economic and financial position of Iceland, one year after the collapse of three hot-money offshore Icelandic banks, Landsbanki, Kaupthing, and Glitnir.
In her remarks, Birgitta Jónsdóttir observed Iceland is already technically bankrupt, and ought to cease payment.
She also pointed to the hostility to Iceland of the IMF and EU. The current prime minister, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, who leads a moribund coalition of Social Democrats and Left Greens, had attempted to justify her policy of financial appeasement of the British and Dutch.
London and The Hague are demanding $6 billion in restitution for losses incurred by private Icelandic bankers operating in their countries as Icesave, even though the Icelandic government had never guaranteed these operations, and even though British and Dutch regulators were deeply implicated in the Icesave debacle, which came in the wake of the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy.
The sum demanded by the British and the Dutch from Iceland in an operation spearheaded by UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown would amount to about half of the yearly Gross Domestic Product of Iceland, a country with 330,000 inhabitants.
