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http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/...284564382.html
Another good objective article from outside the irish media...I have read similar from the very clued in American economist Dean Baker..Is Default the single most important issue now facing us, I think it is and I would suggest we are kidding ourselves when we play by the rules set down for us by the Elite European and world banks...Play the game set down by the bankers and you will lose!
Read this yesterday, excellent article.
Also worth reading:
http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/201...es/#more-14889
From the article - a common but important misconception
"Iceland is an obvious model for us. In a referendum, her voters have already rejected a proposal to pay back their banks’ creditors, who will take major losses."
That referendum in iceland was not about the bank's creditors per se. The issue of Bank creditors had already been dealt with by accepting immediately in Sept 2008 that the banks had collapsed and overnight act to transfer all the deposits into new banks (same buildings - new names), but leaving the mess in the old banks to be sorted out later in an orderly fashion, according to bankruptcy laws. National cash reserves were used to provide liquidity and keep the State tottering along, until the IMF came.
All in all, those were the actions of a sovereign state constitutionally bound to act in the interests of it citizens.
In times of extreme crisis not only should the government be sovereign, but also act urgently and decisively on that sovereignty to protect the citizens. Case in point - DeValera in WW2.
Talk of needing a referendum to force the Iceland government to act in the national interest re the bank creditors is nonsense, even the right wing rabid neo-liberal government at that time understood and were subject to the constitutional national interest.
On the topic of default being the only hope. Default is not a hope, it is an inevitability. Not only are the EU are making a hames of the crisis but the inevitable default will be all the more messy. The rights of the Irish citizens have been subjugated by the EU to the welfare of German/French/UK banks. That is EU law applied to Bank collapse in Ireland. The creditors have to be treated equally as the the mary/joe soap depositers.
Féck, even Libertas could tell you that one.
The biggest argument against defaulting is this - nobody will trust us!! Now this plays well with the little folks and when the government are allowed run the airwaves it's the only game in town. However anybody who knows even the most remote iota about investment and speculation is this - risks are taken and getting burned is part of it. However when there is an opportunity again, it'll be taken again, for better or for worse.
That being said FF and their uneducated and corrupt cronies are going to keep pushing selling out the future to the investors and speculators, as they earn more from it right away!
I see that Iceland still has not concluded reaching agreement with UK/NL on the terms of a bridging loan of about €3.5bn - bridging a period until some assets are sold in a few years.
After 18 months of negotiation, the UK/NL negotiators have been dragged down to 2.75%.
One year ago the interest terms offered were as high as 6%. The Iceland PM said at the time that no one should be making a profit out of this deal. The UK/NL have been screaming ever since, like some arrogant rich spoiled brats who have been dropped into a vat of smelly fish.
And to think that negotiators (supposedly the best brains available) on behalf of Ireland, raised the white flag after a few days of tea&cake and accepted some loans from the ECB at a rate of >6%.
The difference between here and Iceland Is very simple.
They recognised that they had a problem so they dealt with it whether rightly or wrongly.
We on the otherhand have recognised that we are broke but haven't take the blinkers off to recognise the cause of it and the effect of the "solution".
You can't solve a problem if you don't accept that you have one.