Iceland's On-going Revolution An Italian radio program's story about Iceland’s on-going revolution is a stunning example of how little our media tells us about the rest of the world. Americans may remember that at the start of the 2008 financial crisis, Iceland literally went bankrupt. The reasons were mentioned only in passing, and since then, this little-known member of the European Union fell back into oblivion. As one European country after another fails or risks failing, imperiling the Euro, with repercussions for the entire world, the last thing the powers that be want is for Iceland to become an example. Five years of a pure neo-liberal regime had made Iceland, (population 320 thousand, no army), one of the richest countries in the world. Contrary to what could be expected, the crisis resulted in Icelanders recovering their sovereign rights, through a process of direct participatory democracy that eventually led to a new Constitution. Protests and riots continued, eventually forcing the government to resign.
Human corpses harvested in multimillion-dollar trade In the Ukraine, for example, the security service believes that bodies passing through a morgue in the Nikolaev district, the gritty shipbuilding region located near the Black Sea, may have been feeding the trade, leaving behind what investigators described as potentially dozens of “human sock puppets” — corpses stripped of their reusable parts. Industry officials argue that such alleged abuses are rare, and that the industry operates safely and responsibly. For its part, RTI didn't respond to repeated requests for comment or to a detailed list of questions provided a month before this publication. In public statements the company says it “honours the gift of tissue donation by treating the tissue with respect, by finding new ways to use the tissue to help patients and by helping as many patients as possible from each donation". From day one, everything was forged; everything, because we could. As long as the paperwork looked good, it was fine 'Our misfortune' An awkward silence Smoked salmon
Iceland, a country that wants to punish the bankers responsible for the crisis Last week 9 people were arrested in London and Reykjavik for their possible responsibility for Iceland’s financial collapse in 2008, a deep crisis which developed into an unprecedented public reaction that is changing the country’s direction. It has been a revolution without weapons in Iceland, the country that hosts the world’s oldest democracy (since 930), and whose citizens have managed to effect change by going on demonstrations and banging pots and pans. Why have the rest of the Western countries not even heard about it? Pressure from Icelandic citizens’ has managed not only to bring down a government, but also begin the drafting of a new constitution (in process) and is seeking to put in jail those bankers responsible for the financial crisis in the country. As the saying goes, if you ask for things politely it is much easier to get them. After the State took over, the official currency (krona) plummeted and the stock market suspended its activity after a 76% collapse.
ICIJ: Body Brokers Leave Trail Of Questions, Corruption By Kate Willson, Vlad Lavrov, Martina Keller and Michael HudsonThis is the second installment in an International Consortium of Investigative Journalists series. In April 2003, Robert Ambrosino murdered his ex-fiancée -- a 22-year-old aspiring actress -- by shooting her in the face with a .45-caliber pistol. Then Ambrosino turned the gun around and killed himself. Soon after, Ambrosino's corpse entered the United States' vast tissue-donation system, his skin, bones and other body parts destined for use in the manufacture of cutting-edge medical products. But before they entered the system, Michael Mastromarino, owner of a New Jersey-based tissue recovery firm, needed to solve a couple of problems. He didn't want to have to report that Ambrosino had perished in a murder-suicide. Mastromarino solved both problems the same way: He lied. He claimed Ambrosino died in a car accident. A Fantastic Product "This is an industry. But Mastromarino's personal life was falling apart. Reasonable Fees
Iceland Continues Economic Rejuvenation by Purging Financial Parasites By Pete Papaherakles Iceland is showing the world what real independence from the bankers means. The Nordic island has become the first country to criminally charge a world leader as a result of the 2008 economic crisis. Former Prime Minister Geir Haarde, 73, was found guilty of “failing to adequately inform other Icelandic officials of events that led up to the 2008 financial crisis” according to an April 23 New York Times article. As part of Haarde’s final verdict, two of the original six charges were dropped and the other three were cleared. These included “gross neglect of duty” and “ failure to reduce the size of the banking system,” charges that were more serious and could have put him behind bars for years. Haarde, who served as Iceland’s prime minister from June 2006 to February 2009, will not actually have to serve any jail time but the trial was indicative of Iceland’s re-establishment of its sovereignty after defaulting on the bankers.
ICIJ: Human Corpses Are Prize In Global Drive For Profits By Kate Willson, Vlad Lavrov, Martina Keller, Thomas Maier and Gerard RyleThis is the first installment in an International Consortium of Investigative Journalists series. On Feb. 24, Ukrainian authorities made an alarming discovery: bones and other human tissues crammed into coolers in a grimy white minibus. Investigators grew even more intrigued when they found, amid the body parts, envelopes stuffed with cash and autopsy results written in English. What the security service had disrupted was not the work of a serial killer but part of an international pipeline of ingredients for medical and dental products that are routinely implanted into people around the world. The seized documents suggested that the remains of dead Ukrainians were destined for a factory in Germany belonging to the subsidiary of a U.S. medical products company, Florida-based RTI Biologics. Industry officials argue that such alleged abuses are rare, and that the industry operates safely and responsibly. Awkward Silence
Iceland Has Hired An Ex-Cop Bounty Hunter To Go After The Bankers That Wrecked Its Economy The Real Libor Scandal According to news reports, UK banks fixed the London interbank borrowing rate (Libor) with the complicity of the Bank of England (UK central bank) at a low rate in order to obtain a cheap borrowing cost. The way this scandal is playing out is that the banks benefitted from borrowing at these low rates. Whereas this is true, it also strikes us as simplistic and as a diversion from the deeper, darker scandal.Banks are not the only beneficiaries of lower Libor rates. Indicative of greater deceit and a larger scandal than simply borrowing from one another at lower rates, banks gained far more from the rise in the prices, or higher evaluations of floating rate financial instruments (such as CDOs), that resulted from lower Libor rates. On the losing side of the scandal are purchasers of interest rate swaps, savers who receive less interest on their accounts, and ultimately all bond holders when the bond bubble pops and prices collapse. Why isn’t this happening? The answer is even clearer now.
IMF Says Bailouts Iceland-Style Hold Lessons in Crisis Times Iceland holds some key lessons for nations trying to survive bailouts after the island’s approach to its rescue led to a “surprisingly” strong recovery, the International Monetary Fund’s mission chief to the country said. Iceland’s commitment to its program, a decision to push losses on to bondholders instead of taxpayers and the safeguarding of a welfare system that shielded the unemployed from penury helped propel the nation from collapse toward recovery, according to the Washington-based fund. “Iceland has made significant achievements since the crisis,” Daria V. Zakharova, IMF mission chief to the island, said in an interview. “We have a very positive outlook on growth, especially for this year and next year because it appears to us that the growth is broad based.” Iceland refused to protect creditors in its banks, which failed in 2008 after their debts bloated to 10 times the size of the economy. Euro Aid Impressive ‘Key Challenge’ Krona Gains
Libor Scandal Intensifies Spotlight on Bank Regulators ReutersPaul Tucker, an official with the Bank of England, appeared before a British parliamentary committee on Monday. 10:04 a.m. | Updated As big banks face the fallout from a global investigation into interest rate manipulation, American and British lawmakers are scrutinizing regulators who failed to take action that might have prevented years of illegal activity. Politicians in both London and Washington are questioning whether regulators allowed banks to report false rates in the run-up to the 2008 financial crisis and afterward. The focus on regulators and other financial institutions has intensified in the last two weeks after the British bank Barclays agreed to pay $450 million to resolve an enforcement case. The Barclays settlement is the first action stemming from a broad investigation into how banks set key benchmarks, including the London interbank offered rate, or Libor. In November 2007, Mr. “This doesn’t look good, Mr. In the letter to the New York Fed, Mr. Mr. Mr.
ICELAND. No news from Iceland?… why? How come we hear everything that happens in Egypt but no news about what’s happening in Iceland: … In Iceland, the people has made the government resign, the primary banks have been nationalized, it was decided to not pay the debt that these created with Great Britain and Holland due to their bad financial politics and a public assembly has been created to rewrite the constitution. And all of this in a peaceful way. A whole revolution against the powers that have created the current global crisis. This is a summary of the facts: 2008. 2008. 2010. In this crisis an assembly is elected to rewrite a new Constitution which can include the lessons learned from this, and which will substitute the current one (a copy of the Danish Constitution). 25 citizens are chosen, with no political affiliation, out of the 522 candidates. So in summary of the Icelandic revolution: -resignation of the whole government -nationalization of the bank. Have we been informed of this through the media?