Well, Iceland told the banks to shove it, and it's working. Via David Dayen at FDL:
Icelanders who pelted parliament with rocks in 2009 demanding their leaders and bankers answer for the country’s economic and financial collapse are reaping the benefits of their anger.
Since the end of 2008, the island’s banks have forgiven loans equivalent to 13 percent of gross domestic product, easing the debt burdens of more than a quarter of the population, according to a report published this month by the Icelandic Financial Services Association.
From the Bloomberg article:
The island’s steps to resurrect itself since 2008, when its banks defaulted on $85 billion, are proving effective. Iceland’s economy will this year outgrow the euro area and the developed world on average, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates. It costs about the same to insure against an Icelandic default as it does to guard against a credit event in Belgium. Most polls now show Icelanders don’t want to join the European Union, where the debt crisis is in its third year.
All the Republicans can think of is to screw up Medicare and Social Security in order to pay for more tax breaks for corporations and billionaires. Oh, and defund every government program that's actually putting money into the economy.
Maybe we need to stone some members of Congress.
(Read the Bloomberg article -- it's an eye-opener.)
On the other side of that coin, Argentina may be a good example of what the U.S. is headed for if we follow current economic policy. The first section is a history summary, but the second section is the meat of what's happening now, and it seems to be exactly what the U.S. has been doing. The third section is the authors' recommendations on how to fix the "social disaster" brought about by the "recovery."
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