 |
 |
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
 |
|||
|
|||
 |
|||
|
|||
 |
|||
|
Address On Iceland &The IMF, Debt Moratorium, And Tobin Tax
- Text size
Webster Tarpley
Infowars
October 22, 2009
Delivered by Birgitta Jónsdóttir of The Movement in the Icelandic Parliament, October 5, 2009.
Madam President. Dear countrymen. We have a choice to make. We are never faced with just one way, one solution. To assert so is a testimony to incredible tunnel vision on the reality that we live in. We are far from being the first and only nation that has had to deal with crisis and economic collapse. Perhaps what makes our position unique is that we are in an economic war a war with nations that are using their positions of power to get what they want. Does that mean that all other avenues are closed? Are there perhaps other possibilities than chaining us with the burdens of foreign debt far into the future?
It certainly makes sense to lower our interest payments as soon as possible but is there perhaps another way? Why can’t we look at, or at least discuss, the possible solution of declaring a debt moratorium? The numbers I hear on the national debt are so huge and such a high percentage of our GDP, that according to all the standards we use, we are technically bankrupt. Is it maybe better to face reality before it is too late? Is it maybe better for our nation to take the crunch immediately instead of continuously adding to our foreign debt? Do we want to offer our children the hopeless conditions that many underdeveloped countries have had to offer their future generations? Do we want to be just another country that does not do anything other than pay off interest on foreign debts? What is the worst thing that could happen if we declare debt moratorium? Will the sky fall? Will we starve? Will we never again be able to get loans from the international community? Of course not.
We have heard from many experts that horrendous tales of the International Monetary Fund. They warn us against continuing on the road we are on. Do these fine individuals know what they are talking about? One of them is a Nobel Prize winner in economics and worked for the IMF a long time, the other was an economic hit man and yet another one is a world renowned economist. Some experts have proposed that we join other nations that have defied the IMF, or at least seek advice from nations that have fared badly under IMF conditions. Will we be able to preserve economic independence, if we continue to believe that the only possible solution to the debt problem is to create more debt? People who are dealing with excessive consumption of some sort should probably not use this cure since the solution seems to be to consume more to cure the over consumption. I simply don’t understand this methodology.
Unfortunately, the reality is that if we continue on the way the government is going our nation will be crushed under the interest burdens of foreign debt. Payment of foreign debt will take a big chunk of our economic growth and our GDP. The government proposes two ways out of this problem, slashing our welfare state and increasing taxes. Furthermore, we have not seen any reasonable proposal to correct the injustice that the public has suffered. How can you expect the nation to shoulder such burdens as the proposed cuts and tax increase suggests if you can not trust that the hardship will have positive results in the end? It simply can not be expected.
We now need to make decisions based on hope, justice, and the resurrection of pride which comes from living in a country which many people believe is almost uninhabitable. We can and should seek all possible ways to find common solutions. Britain declared war on our nation when they labeled us as terrorists the British authorities have used economic terrorism against us by misusing the IMF, and using our EU membership application as leverage in order to extort from us what they want in the Icesave [1] debate. It is morally wrong to lay debts on the shoulders of the public which it had nothing to do with in the first place.
Our government doesn’t seem to realize that we are indeed in an economic war and that the nation has been attacked in such a way which makes a courteous response impossible, and it being impossible as well to state without blinking that we should pay the debts of financiers that mortgaged the work of the nation undisturbed while the administration slept.
The demands of Britain and Holland regarding Icesave have to be rejected on the basis of national well being and security. If the government tries to honor the Icesave agreement and follow the IMF program it could lead to mass emigration, damage our healthcare and education system, diminish the workforce, inhibit productive investments and usher in a period of permanent national decline.
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
The Movement supports the following ideas for action to bring us out of the economic calamity we are in:
First, we should rid ourselves of the IMF presence in our country using all available means. The European Union has also been hostile to Iceland in the Icesave debate and hence it would be inadvisable to continue with our membership application at this time.
Secondly, we should initiate measures to control speculative trading, first by placing a 1% “Tobin-tax” on all financial transactions and profits, including derivatives, stocks, currency transactions and commodity speculation. Additionally we should halt the repossession of homes and businesses and update our regulatory framework for banks and financial markets.
We are now heading into familiar territory where left and right are positioning themselves in the usual opposing trenches. Lament is now heard from a familiar corner about how the cutbacks aren’t large enough or that its unfair to tax those more who can afford to pay more.
We have often heard that we need to get around this left-right paradigm which places people in opposing camps. It has never been more important than right now to lift the discussion on a higher plane than the trench warfare of obsolete values.
When I see the task of this government I see a number of important issues on the agenda and I pledge our support to much of the legislation being proposed. Much has been discussed about a broad based national coalition government and a non-parliamentary government . Such arrangements have not fared well in the past, but the total collapse of our financial system may justify that all elected representatives shoulder collective responsibility of resuscitating our economy. Unfortunately our president has lost his symbol of unity and any such government appointed by him would leave much to be desired.
This year I and my friends in The Movement have have thought about what could unite us to seek a way out of our troubles. What could make us believe that it was sensible to try working our way out of these trying times and injustice. Is it realistic to expect that the public take on the difficult times ahead if they can not unite on something to work through this? It is often said that we parliamentarians are a disparate group of people reflecting the different views of society. Maybe our next big task should be to find a common way which we all can go. Maybe we need to think beyond the next four years. Maybe we need to really discuss what kind of nation we want to be. Many people walk wounded from the boom time in which they took part, they got swept by the current and now feel guilty. Others never took part in any of this and feel its unfair that now they are called on to pay for this whole mess when they never were rich in the first place. The pulse of the nation is rapid and raging.
The new Iceland isn’t the Iceland that the people called for. They wanted democratic reforms, but legislation now being proposed in this area is weak and not in tune with the people’s demands. The nation needs a constitutional convention in which citizens take part but the expensive advisory convention for a chosen few which the government proposes is a distortion of the unity such a convention could bring if a different metheod were used. In November a few energetic individuals will call together a national convention and it is my hope this endeavor will guide us on this path.
We parliamentarians are here to represent the will of the people. But the people have to make up their minds as to what it is that they want. It is clear that no matter which government will be in charge, they will always be unpopular in the trying times ahead If we are not to have a persistent government crisis it is important that Parliament take back the powers it was originally intended to have. At the moment the executive branch holds Parliament hostage. It is healthy for democracy that the executive branch refrain from using its MPs as a rubber stamp for their decisions. The government has set an example for all and called for the parliamentary minority to work according to their conviction, cf. European Union application – it must apply to the majority as well. Heard mentality and leader adulation brought us down. Let’s make sure it doesn’t happen again. The Movement wants to speak for the public; we have no interests to guard but your own.
Halldór Laxness[2] had a unique insight into our nation’s soul. “Maystar,” his poems of hope, sings in my heart when I think to my nation these days, and in particular this verse:
There are difficult times,
there is a labor dispute,
I have nothing to offer,
not a scrap I can give,
but my hope and my life
whether awake or asleep,
this hope that you gave me
it is all that I have.
There are difficult times and a hard winter lies ahead, but let us never forget that the darkest hour is always before dawn and there is hope if we find it together. In order for this to happen we must square up with the past and implement real changes. If we can see a purpose with our sacrifices this nation can continue to perform small miracles and make the impossible possible, then this depression will perhaps not last as long as it seems at the moment. It is unrealistic to argue that next year we will see the end of the crisis. But it is realistic to set goals that we can all agree on. What these goals are is yours to decide and ours to implement.
[1] Icesave refers to the branch banks set up by the Iceland-based private banks Landsbanki and Kaupthing in the deregulated banking sectors of Great Britain and the Netherlands. These branches were seized by London and The Hague at the height of the Lehman Brothers panic in September-October 2008. These governments, backed by the IMF, then demanded more than $6 billion from the Icelandic government to bail out the depositors. This is the attempted extortion which Ms. Jonsdottir is speaking against.
[2] Laxness is the most beloved modern Icelandic writer and the author of Independent People; he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1955.
-
- Social bookmarks
- Email this article
-
- Print this page
- Share on Twitter
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:53 pm
############### SPREAD THIS INFORMATION ###############
Wall Street criminals exposed By Marcy K.:
kaptur.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=289&Itemid=1
youtube.com/watch?v=tMCZ8JeEpUw
or
fednet.net/asx/2008/kaptur092208.asx
Tim Geithner refusus to answser Brad Shermans question:
youtube.com/watch?v=rEpmRv2kAng
or
youtube.com/watch?v=_nWFfJQtoT8
HQ version: youtube.com/watch?v=Gvt1uzLv15o
Rep. Alan Grayson asks the FEDERAL RESERVE Inspector General where the money is gone..:
youtube.com/watch?v=PXlxBeAvsB8
HQ version: youtube.com/watch?v=cJqM2tFOxLQ
**********END THE CRIMINAL RESERVE – ACTION STEPS**********
Bills to be supported: S 604 and HR 1207. Information:
ronpaul.com/on-the-issues/audit-the-federal-reserve-hr-1207
or
http://www.campaignforliberty......d-home.php
or
auditthefed.com
Stop Ben criminal helicopter Bernanke:
www(dot)unmaskthefed.com
############### SPREAD THIS INFORMATION ###############
JJ Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Ben Bernanke should be hung from a tree
ren Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:35 pm
Fall of the Republic torrent http://btjunkie.org/torrent/Fa.....5f99a9b2f2
Drifter/ ex mental patient Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:54 pm
Web Tarpley for president in 2012-the man with the plan
woo hoo Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:05 pm
We Can End The Private Banking System Now or Enslave Our Children Forever in Debt – The Choice Is Yours & The Time Is Now!
anti/PRO Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:39 pm
first off i agree yet us and our land where made collateral on the pre great depression debt. its a hard read but the social security act enslaved the citizens and there future kin.
woo hoo Reply:
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:39 am
Makes no difference. End private banking systems – outlaw them – What can they do ?
Forgive all debts. Take back all the trillions they stole over the years and close down all their institutions..
WORLD WIDE DEBT AMNESTY !!
oldog Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 10:01 pm
why not all of them
Griz Reply:
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:49 am
Don’t abuse trees when it’s not necessary, hang them from utility poles and such.
MATTHEW Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:48 pm
WACTH THIS VIDEO OF WHAT HAPPEND TO THIS CHCIK THAT TOOK THE FLU SHOT IT’S NEW ON YOU TUBE http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mScGC7nFDxM
October 22nd, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Wes haell, Islandski
icelandic citizen Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:34 pm
?? you trying to communicate in icelandic? Tell me and I´ll translate it.
Wes doesn´t mean anything (we don´t even use the letter “w”) and hæll means “heal”…or however it´s spelled.. the back of you foot.
..and icelandic is not slavic language. Actually it´s the oldest language spoken in Europe, unless you include latin.
WTF Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Wow! Interesting!
Neocon Narc Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:06 pm
You come from a very brave and proud heritage.
I respect how your country has taken the crooks head on.
It sounds like your leaders tried to be fair and pay a debt that is illegal.
But I hope Americans learn and respond the same way.
Iceland’s case is as obvious of a corruption as seen.
And the Americans who peddled those derivatives should be in jail.
Brown and his gold scam should be ruled a scam too.
If the Bank of England thought Iceland was a pushover. They thought wrong!!!
maelstrom the orkney spider-penguin Reply:
October 23rd, 2009 at 8:29 am
i think he was trying to write in Old Norse, which is what Icelandic is, but he tried it with a different orthography. Icelandic isn’t the oldest language in Europe, it’s the most archaic of the Scandinavian languages (aka North Germanic) still spoken. All languages are equally old since they all descend from time immemorial. Archaity is just a way of saying conservative, the language conserves old forms not now found in related languages. If you want to get totally hisotrical about it, the IE languages in Europe are newcomers and the oldest still living would be Basque or something.
icelandic citizen Reply:
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:01 am
..and yeah, people in Norway claim a lot of icelandic vikings were norwegan. Fuck you Norway! ..and old norse is pure icelandic. They say for example that Leifur heppni was from Norway which is bullshit. He was as icelandic as I. (By the way, the international airport in Iceland is called Leif´s-station, after this man).
..so Norway can just fuck off. Leave our heritage alone. Get your own. Fuck Norway. They won´t help Iceland in current crises, even though they are crasy rich because of all of their oil (the oil-fields are stationed, by the way, around the costal area that the Heruls lived, in W-Norway).
Norway says they won´t help Iceland unless we pay the debts of private banks.
…so they can just go fuck themselves. We now know who our friends are, and who are not.
Danny Cunnington Reply:
October 24th, 2009 at 5:19 am
Iceland is been bullied by a cabal of parasitic international bankers. The UK and Dutch governments cannot admit to their own people that the banking operations based in the countries of the UK and Holland were not guaranteed by the Icelandic government and were subject to Dutch and British regulators who failed in their duties. If they admit to this they will have to pay out the savers who lost their savings. This would also expose the lying game they have embarked on to shift blames away from themselves.
Instead they choose to bully Iceland and seek to impoverish the Icelandic people whilst diverting blame from themselves. Norway has been threatened by this same gang of banksters. They are not allowed to help Iceland and will be attacked economically if they do.
They are planning to rob Norway later and want their sovereign wealth fund intact.
Iceland doesn’t need a central bank. A responsible government could directly issue a new currency. There’s never been any reason for the Icelandic government to borrow it’s own money at interest from a private cabal of criminals. The vampire banksters want what they always want: Your blood. The EU is owned by these vile creatures and you don’t want to have anything to do with it. They will just rob you of your fishing industry and leave you with nothing.
If you really want to see the bankster jackals foaming at the mouth, issue your own currency directly and invite Russia to lease some port facilities. Pull out of NATO. Nato’s casualty rates for civilian is over 90%. This is not an army but a giant death squad marching to the tune of the same vampires. Just belonging to NATO makes you complicit in multiple war crimes.
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:00 pm
last
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:02 pm
First.
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Tarpley is awesome…Reminds me of Mr. Magoo…smart guy.
maelstrom Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:24 pm
I caught him on the Truth Jihad radio show the other day, before the guy covering that wtc art student thing was interviewed. I think I want Tarpley for US president. Tarpley 09. We can’t wait. I even believe his version of Andrew Jackson/van Buren more than the Milton Friendman/Creature from Jekyll Island version. And I find myself seriously questioning the assassination of McKinley in a way I never have before.
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:14 pm
I have took time to flash all of Alex Jones and other important NWO material including the latest and greatest Fall of the Republic.
Click Here: http://www.joemarquis.com/videos.htm
Please share this link to anyone……
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Great Job Lady!!!
Why pay back a debt caused by the very terrorist threatening them right now.
Either you make it possible for the debt to be paid back with reasonable terms.
Or else you get nothing.
So the bluff is still on.
But she is NOT bluffing. Time to default and end a system that failed.
maelstrom Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:06 pm
the icelandic parliament the thing already voted to pay UK and NL.
Warwolf Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:35 pm
…yes, with severe restrichtions, which are now being flushed down the toiled. Or at least they´re trying to. They need to do that so their preciouss E.U. application will have a chance. The Goverment is nothing but fucking dumb fuckheads. They will burn.
MadMarkie Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 5:52 pm
The United States could do the exact same thing. We could print up a shit-pot of money and drop it off in front of the Chinese and Japanese Embassies. “Here you go, our debts to you are now paid in full!” We’re already printing money like there is no tomorrow ……. what’s a few huntred trillion more?
Buzz Hacksaw Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 8:20 pm
Better yet.
The money loaned to us was created out of nothing, therefore it is nothing. We have all been lent nothing. Therefore we owe nothing. There is nothing to pay back.
Problem solved.
Buzz
Quincy Free Reply:
October 23rd, 2009 at 10:21 am
And THAT is the meat and potatoes too. (should that e be in there? spell checker says so….)
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:20 pm
Rothschild says… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v.....rofilepage
asdf Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:08 pm
ha, that was funny…stupid robots…
October 22nd, 2009 at 1:38 pm
Iceland please do not go into the EU
October 22nd, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Wow; smart AND pretty. Why can’t American women be like that? Because they are brainwashed and indoctrinated from cradle to grave!
Captain Kirk Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:11 pm
smart maybe but I have a different view of pretty.
My first thought was who is this skank? She’s but ugly
To squeeze his own I guess
October 22nd, 2009 at 4:20 pm
BravoLima Says:
“October 22nd, 2009 at 2:34 pm
Wow; smart AND pretty. Why can’t American women be like that? Because they are brainwashed and indoctrinated from cradle to grave!”
Brainwashed Is not a valid excuse..
October 22nd, 2009 at 7:39 pm
Dr. Orly Taitz’s presentation in South Dakota 1/9
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Es6Giyer5nU
Watch all 9 parts.
This presentation should be posted by the infowars staff, it is full of information about corruption,…
Its “infowars by Orly Taitz”
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:36 pm
Dr. Tarpley, thank you for doing everything you can to try and save this poor country from London and Wall Street vultures.
Dr. Tarpley is an intellectual Giant, and must be honored for his tireless service to human rights and freedom. Thank you Webster, thank you.
maelstrom the orkney spider-penguin Reply:
October 23rd, 2009 at 8:24 am
hip hip hoorah for webster. he really did try. i read on oct 19 on greenland national radio newssite that the icelandic parliament abandoned their duty and voted for paying the blackmail. the saddest thing was a comment underneath that said “well, that’s what the icelanders get, they all got rich speculating, now they have to pay the piper” to paraphrase the google translation of the danish. i think someone is not getting the fact that it’s the bankers and the british empire extorting money from the poor, who had nothing to do with it. i’d rather see iceland declare british and dutch vessels pirates and fair game, and screw the EU.
October 22nd, 2009 at 9:53 pm
first off i agree yet us and our land where made collateral on the pre great depression debt. its a hard read but the social security act enslaved the citizens and there future kin.http://www.uggboots-home.net
October 22nd, 2009 at 11:01 pm
ICELAND3ERs Take up yerr Pointed-HAMMERS & YER LONG SPIKE SNOW SHOES Digg IN wit alls yer might!!!!! What a great and very classie LASS -N-CHEIF, you have up yander in the great white slope? “YA” Take yer extra long length’s of pipes and take them and tap into all that great tech as in GEO-THERMAL===========then you take them taps and MELT THE HELL OUT OF THOSE BANKS OF ICE AND FLOOD THE WHOLE DAMN THING And don’t stop til they say yer debts are a paid in full or FLUID what ever comes first, keep flooding til they say yer all squared or alls of yuns live on yer on boats, then you can whack the living shit out of them when the try snaking their way onto yer boats !!!! If all else fails float your boats down here to “America” and you can help us when we have to pay up on all debt, “WE SHOULD ALL STAND AS ONE”..The banks have no borders neither should we … You are in our hearts and in our prayers, GOD BLESS THE ICELANDERS and GOD BLESS ALL THE REAL FOLK…We will Win in the very end!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 23rd, 2009 at 4:40 am
Yeah a lot of blablabla but … what’s about the people who put their country in the hole , jailed or hang up for high trahison ? I think not , lady , just start with the first thing to do , deeling with the traitors , you will have more credebility
October 23rd, 2009 at 9:52 am
Got to agree with Raphael, Sieze the Icelandic BANKSTERS assets, put them in jail if they come back to Iceland, ban them fro life otherwise. Commies can default on loans, it’s time for Iceland to default and tell foreign creditors to stuff it. The US will have to do the same thing in a couple more years. Hopefully we will still have a powerfull military to tell the rest of the world to STUFF IT!
maelstrom hvalurerson Reply:
October 23rd, 2009 at 12:21 pm
yeah, but it’s not jsut commies, and the thing is to know when to just say no. better too soon than too late.
October 23rd, 2009 at 1:16 pm
mmm………………quite an attractive woman.
October 24th, 2009 at 12:13 am
When the English arrived here, they met an Indigenous tribe called the Wampanoag. As these new arrivals that crossed the ocean began to multiply, and carried out ” God’s duty “, they too played the tactic of placing the Indigenous people in debt.
With the Indigenous people in debt, the English then took ‘payment’ in siezing the land. This was in the early 1600’s when the Dutch, Spanish, French & Brits were all jockeying and fighting for the resources of this land. The Brits indebted many tribes and later the Americans did it also.
It has been going on in this piece of real estate quite a while before it was called the united states.
maelstrom Reply:
October 24th, 2009 at 6:39 am
That was the rush to “extinguish aboriginal title” to North and South America. Besides the aforemention colonizers the Russians, Portuguese and Swedes were also involved.
Was Massoit authorized to hand over the territory of the Massachusetts colony to the Europeans? Of course not. You have to find a sucker, a patsy who will act as your proxy for legal purposes. Gordon Brown and Beatrix have found just such a group of suckers in the oldest working parliament in Europe, the Icelandic Thing.