The people of Greece have been told that the privatization of their public sector is the only solution. And those of Italy, Spain and Portugal are facing the same threat. They should look to Iceland. Refusing to bow to foreign interests, that small country stated loud and clear that the people are sovereign.
That’s why it is not in the news anymore.

Nämä heput päättivät parin tunnin kaffettelun päätteeksi, että olisi hyvä jos heidän valitsema Päällikkö hallitsisi sinua jatkossa. tervettä menoa? - “France and Germany have set out plans to create the first “true European economic government” headed by a single appointed leader, as part of major moves to synchronise tax and spending to save the failing eurozone. The French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and German chancellor, Angela Merkel, announced the dramatic proposals after a two-hour mini-summit.”

Valuuttarahaston asiantuntijat povasivat omissa ennusteissaan velkasaneerauksen koituvan Argentiinalle katastrofiksi, mutta todellisuudessa maan talous palasi kasvu-uralle vain puolisen vuotta velkasaneerauksen jälkeen. Sen jälkeen Argentiinan talous onkin kasvanut noin neljäkymmentä prosenttia kiinteillä hinnoilla laskettuna. Voisi kuvitella, että Kansainvälinen valuuttarahasto olisi ottanut opikseen viimeistään Argentiinan velkasaneerauksen jälkeen — vaan ei. Nyt valuuttarahasto on tyrkyttämässä kerta toisensa jälkeen epäonnistunutta talouspoliittista keinovalikoimaansa euroalueen kriisimaille, ja vieläpä EU:n suosiollisella avustuksella. Ja jo tässä vaiheessa on selvää, että seuraukset tulevat tavalliseen tapaan olemaan kansalaisten hyvinvoinnin kannalta tuhoisat. -Kirjoittaja on kauppatieteiden tohtori ja Åbo Akademin taloustieteen tutkija

Läntistä demokratiaa levitetään nykyään myös Eurooppaan.

Suomeen viitataan rikkaana luotonantajana joita ilman pankit tekisivät tappiota. Muistappa se kun päättäjät alkavat leikkaamaan.

What happens when Greece defaults. Here are a few things:

• Every bank in Greece will instantly go insolvent.
• The Greek government will nationalise every bank in Greece.
• The Greek government will forbid withdrawals from Greek banks.
• To prevent Greek depositors from rioting on the streets, Argentina-2002-style (when the Argentinian president had to flee by helicopter from the roof of the presidential palace to evade a mob of such depositors), the Greek government will declare a curfew, perhaps even general martial law. …

We made a distastrous tactical error when we decided to choose the interests of the bankers over the people. Europe does not have to take that same route. We have not admitted that the system is flawed and in dire need of restructuring. And the result is that the world’s largest economy has an economic “recovery” with a laughable 9% unemployment rate and an economic strategy that is based on the same gimmicks that helped cause the crisis. Europe needs to recognize what the markets are telling these leaders that there is a structural flaw at work here. And it needs to be fixed.

You don’t hear much about the insolvent island any more – apart from occasions such as this weekend, when Icelandic voters were asked to repay the £3.5bn owing on collapsed bank Icesave, and replied with a firm “Nei”. Unnoticed it may be, but Reykjavik now serves as a very different kind of parable, of how to minimise the misery of financial collapse by ignoring economic orthodoxy. And in those other broke European economies – from Dublin to Athens to Lisbon – politicians and voters are starting to pay attention. After its three biggest banks – 85% of the country’s financial system – failed in the same week, Iceland did two remarkable things. First, it let the banks go under: foreign financiers who had lent to Reykjavik institutions at their own risk didn’t get a single krona back. Second, officials imposed capital controls, making it harder for hot-money merchants to pull their cash out of the country.

Jos johonkin on voinut eurooppalaisen rahakriisin aikana luottaa, niin se on ollut kaiken uutisoinnin paikkaansa pitämättömyys ja maamme hallituksen lausuntojen valheellisuus. Eurooppalaisen poliittisen koneiston tekemät laittomat päätökset on sen sijaan voinut etukäteen lukea maailman johtavien talouslehtien sivuilta. Hallitus jatkaa itsepintaisesti samalla linjalla kuin aiemminkin. Nyt meille lupaillaan, että Portugal on se vihon viimeinen pelastettava. Samaan aikaan kansainvälisestä mediasta voi lukea jo seuraavat kohteet takauksille: Espanja, Italia ja mahdollisesti Ranska.

Commodity prices have spiked in recent weeks on harsh weather that has hit various parts of the world. Sugar prices last week surged to a three-decade high because of supply constraints stemming from cyclones and floods that have recently hit Australia, the world’s third-largest sugar producer behind Brazil and Thailand.