International Monetary Fund

Strategic Failure: Iceland Allowed 2008 Bank Collapses To Support Households

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RT  January 30 2014

A general view shows the city of Reykjavik seen from Hallgrimskirkja church (Reuters/Stoyan Nenov)
A general view shows the city of Reykjavik seen from Hallgrimskirkja church (Reuters/Stoyan Nenov)

Iceland is the land of active volcanoes and unexpected decisions. During the crisis in 2008 the government let its banks collapse instead of bailing them out, as they proved too big to save. The next challenge is to bring unemployment rate to 2 percent.

Iceland, whose stock market after the 2008 financial crisis plunged 90 percent while unemployment rose ninefold, has chosen a risky crisis-management policy as a way-out. After shrinking by over 10 percent during 2009-2010, Iceland’s GDP began to recover.

During the worst financial crisis in six decades, successive Icelandic governments forced banks to write off mortgage debts to help households, and while the euro area struggles with record unemployment rate (with over 25 percent in Greece and Spain), Iceland has a reason to celebrate, with joblessness in December as low as 4.5 percent, according to Statistics Iceland. The number of persons in the labor force in the fourth quarter last year was 184,600, which corresponds to an activity rate of 80.7 percent.

The prime minister recently announced that the next big challenge for the small island nation with the population of 325,620 is to see unemployment going to under 2 percent, because, as Sigmundur D. Gunnlaugsson told Bloomberg in January, “Icelanders aren’t accustomed to unemployment.”

At 85 percent, Iceland’s labor-market is the highest in Europe and one of the highest in the world. In December alone, 172 new private limited companies were registered in the island, compared with 147 in December 2012. The largest number of new registrations was in financial and insurance activities. In 2013, 1,938 new private limited companies were registered, which is a 10.6 percent increase compared with 2012.

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IMF Wants A 71 Percent Tax Rate

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Infowars.com  December 13 2013

imf_theftRomain Hatcheul’s largely passed over article on the Wall Street Journal’s website was revisited yesterday by Simon Black over at the Sovereign Man blog. Black spells out the latest IMF scheme to steal wealth from the producers and enslave billions of people: a taxation rate over 70 percent.

“The IMF’s team of monkeys has been working around the clock on this one, figuring that developed nations can increase their overall tax revenue by increasing tax rates,” Black writes. “They’ve singled out the US, suggesting that the US government could maximize its tax revenue by increasing tax brackets to as high as 71%.”

Black notes that the latest criminal plot by the “grand wizards of the global financial system” is telling. It “might be the clearest sign yet that the whole house of cards is dangerously close to being swept away.”

Can a person still be considered “free” when 71% of what s/he earns is taken away at the point of a gun by a bankrupt, bullying government? Or are you merely a serf then, existing only to feed the system?

Hatcheul explains that taxation schemes like the one cooked up by France’s socialist government – a 75% tax on income above one million euros – will not produce the result desired: the wealthy will avoid taxation, as French actor Gérard Depardieu did when he turned over his passport and became a tax exile. French billionaire Bernard Arnault applied for Belgian nationality in response to socialist thievery and penned a piece titled: If U.S. Had 75% Tax Rate, You’d Leave Too. Continue reading →

Iceland Thumbs Nose At International Opposition To Advance $1.2 Billion Debt Relief Plan

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RT  December 1 2013

A general view of houses in the town of Vik in southern Iceland.(Reuters/ Ingolfur Juliusson)

Iceland’s government has announced that it will be writing off up to 24,000 euros ($32,600) of every household’s mortgage, fulfilling its election promise, despite overwhelming criticism from international financial institutions.

The measure was introduced by the country’s prime minister, Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson, the leader of the Progressive Party which won the late-April elections on a promise of household debt relief.

According to the government’s website the household debt will be reduced by 13 percent on average.

Citizens of Iceland have been suffering from debt since the 2008 financial crisis, which led to high borrowing costs after the collapse of the krona against other currencies.

“Currently, household debt is equivalent to 108 percent of GDP, which is high by international comparison,” highlighted a government statement, according to AFP. “The action will boost household disposable income and encourage savings.”

The government said that the debt relief will begin by mid-2014 and according to estimates the measure is set to cost $1.2 billion in total. It will be spread out over four years.

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Usury: Weapon Of Control And Enslavement – Part 2 Of 2

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Federal Reserve SystemIn part one of this article, we defined usury as the lending of money at interest. We examined the history of usury and how it was considered morally reprehensible for thousands of years, prior to becoming the sand foundation modern economies. We also examined the mastery of usury, how they create money out of nothing and use it as a silent weapon for control of humanity.

Here, we examine the crimes and iniquity made possible by usury; and practical solutions.

Banker Bailouts

After the largest banks made bad loans and foreclosed on over ten million (10,000,000) homes, often illegally by forging documents, the private Federal Reserve, which is owned by its member banks, bailed out the following banks with at least $16.9 trillion according to page 131 of the first GAO audit:

  • Citigroup: $2.5 trillion ($2,500,000,000,000)
  • Morgan Stanley: $2.04 trillion ($2,040,000,000,000)
  • Merrill Lynch: $1.949 trillion ($1,949,000,000,000)
  • Bank of America: $1.344 trillion ($1,344,000,000,000)
  • Barclays PLC (United Kingdom): $868 billion ($868,000,000,000)
  • Bear Sterns: $853 billion ($853,000,000,000)
  • Goldman Sachs: $814 billion ($814,000,000,000)
  • Royal Bank of Scotland (UK): $541 billion ($541,000,000,000)
  • JPMorgan Chase: $391 billion ($391,000,000,000)
  • Deutsche Bank (Germany): $354 billion ($354,000,000,000)
  • UBS (Switzerland): $287 billion ($287,000,000,000)
  • Credit Suisse (Switzerland): $262 billion ($262,000,000,000)
  • Lehman Brothers: $183 billion ($183,000,000,000)
  • Bank of Scotland (United Kingdom): $181 billion ($181,000,000,000)
  • BNP Paribas (France): $175 billion ($175,000,000,000)

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Move Over IMF For The BRICS Development Bank

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BATR April 3 2013

The International Monetary Fund is an extortion financier’s outfit for a gang of exploiter banksters. The colonists of global mercantilism operate on extending credit with strings attached and assets targeted for attachment. Poor and underdeveloped economies beg for roll over extensions of old debt in an endless circle of currency debasement and resource transfer. So why anyone would get excited over a competing banking house, seems to escape implications within the news publications.

The Global Post describes in the article, BRICS countries to form new development bank.

“The bank is intended to fund development and infrastructure projects in BRICS nations and elsewhere. First discussed a year ago, it has been described as an alternative to the IMF and World Bank for developing countries.

Although the plan is the biggest announcement to come out of a summit of BRICS leaders in Durban, South Africa, where they signed an accord today, details such as how much capital the bank will have, its structure and its location have yet to be worked out.”

Would this development bank become simply a Chinese dynasty investment structure based upon the weight of their financial leverage within the system? Or would the union of eager modernizing countries really be the future formula for economic growth and wealth? On the surface the positive foreign reserves and lower indebtedness seem to answer a resounding yes, but look a little deeper.

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