(NaturalNews) Banks around the world are no longer the quaint little
savings-and-loan depositories of yesterday. Today, most of them are
owned or co-opted by giant mega-wealthy criminal conglomerates that
charge customers for everything from cash deposits to ATM fees.
One
Western country finally figured out that allowing these criminal
enterprises to continue operating business as usual was hurting growth
and destroying its economy, so its government decided to make some
serious reforms.
Instead of bailing out the big criminal banking enterprises, Iceland instead chose to try, convict and jail criminal banksters. And as a result, the country has the fastest recovering economy in all of fiscally moribund Europe.
Public faith being restored with economy
As reported by The AntiMedia:
After
Iceland suffered a heavy hit in the 2008-2009 financial crisis, which
famously resulted in convictions and jail terms for a number of top
banking executives, the IMF now says the country has managed to achieve
economic recovery—"without compromising its welfare model," which
includes universal healthcare and education. In fact, Iceland is on
track to become the first European country that suffered in the
financial meltdown to "surpass its pre-crisis peak of economic
output"—essentially proving to the U.S. that bailing out "too big to
fail" banks wasn't the way to go.
What is unfortunate is that Iceland
seems to be the lone exception in how the country chose to handle the
economic disaster: Rather than commit hundreds of billions in currency
to preserving what was obviously a failed business model, the government
simply let the banks fail, a decision which resulted in about $85
billion worth of defaults.
But that figure nevertheless gave the
government ample justification to prosecute and convict a number of bank
executives over a raft of fraud-related charges. And while the decision
to proceed in that manner shocked a number of governments and financial
"experts" at the time, it was a gamble that has since paid off.
Contrast
Iceland's decision with the U.S. decision to bail out its global banks
and allow the bank executives to get away with defrauding the country of
trillions in assets; essentially, all the government did was levy fines
that ultimately were paid by corporations. So the executives
essentially got away scot-free.
"Why should we have a part of our
society that is not being policed or without responsibility?" special
prosecutor Olafur Hauksson said following a decision by Iceland's
Supreme Court to uphold the convictions for three bankers, sentencing
them to between four and five and a half years each. "It is dangerous
that someone is too big to investigate—it gives a sense there is a safe
haven."
Icelander debt is also decreasing
Hauksson,
a one-time police officer from a small Iceland fishing village, wound
up taking the role of special prosecutor after he was asked to do so
when the job announcement initially drew no takers. In addition,
Iceland's parliament helped the prosecutorial effort by relaxing secrecy
laws, giving Hauksson the ability to conduct his investigations without
the need of court orders.
Thus far, six of the seven convictions
that were referred to the Iceland Supreme Court have been upheld; as of
February, five other cases were scheduled for the nation's top court to
hear. Further, an additional 14 cases look likely to be prosecuted.
As The AntiMedia further reported, that won't be the case in the U.S.:
By
contrast, the animosity Americans felt toward their largest financial
institutions after the bailout has grown bitter. After the banks pled
guilty in May for manipulating global currency and interest rates, the
court imposed a paltry fine of $5.7 billion—which won't even go to the
people most affected by the fraud.
Iceland's successful prosecutions and economic recovery remain the subject of envy for Americans.
Iceland's credit status has also improved as its public debt has fallen as well, according to global credit rating agency Moody's.
Sources:
http://www.naturalnews.com
http://theantimedia.org
www.moodys.com
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