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Economy
Iceland Refuses To Gouge Taxpayers To Bail Out Banks; UK anger
2010-01-06
The Icelandic president, Olafur Ragnar Grimmson has refused to sign into law a bill designed to reimburse money lost by savers when the Icesave bank collapsed. Mr Grimmson called for a referendum on the bill to be held.

The country's parliament approved the plans to repay 3.8bn euros (£3.4bn) to savers in the UK and the Netherlands in December.

The money would have gone to the British and Dutch governments, who partially compensated savers when the Icesave online bank failed. More than 320,000 savers lost out when the bank collapsed in 2008.
The UK threatens to freeze Iceland out of the EU in response to this perceived abrogation of an agreement whereby the UK stretched to keep Iceland solvent when they needed it badly.
Posted by: Anonymoose

#6  Abu Dabai bailed out Dubai, would Norway do the same for its old colony?
Posted by: 746   2010-01-06 10:47  

#5  Look up how much TARP money went overseas to repay banks and institutions for unsecured gambling in derivatives in the American market. The ruling elite didn't want the taxpayers here to know what was really going on either.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2010-01-06 08:07  

#4  Tipover, I'm not sure of the exact paperwork involved. However, the UK government lent money to the Iceland banks with the Icelandic government's involvement. The intent was, in part, to keep UK banks solvent since there were massive business contracts between them ... Iceland as a country nearly declared bankruptcy.
Posted by: lotp   2010-01-06 07:37  

#3  If the UK had a referendum we'd not bail out foreign banks either.

This isn't wholly unpopular in the UK people (as opposed to the Government/MSM complex).
Posted by: Bright Pebbles   2010-01-06 05:45  

#2  Was there such an agreement? I didn't follow this closely at the time but did the British and Dutch give money to "savers" without Iceland asking for that aid? And did they then expect Iceland to reimburse them?
Posted by: tipover   2010-01-06 02:42  

#1  I don't know, Moose. That's not a bug; it's a feature.
Posted by: Eric Jablow   2010-01-06 00:23  

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