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Monday, April 4, 2016

Iceland Finally Confirms 9 Top Bankers To Be Jailed For 46 Years

Iceland has just found 9 of its top bankers guilty of crimes associated with the 2008 economic crash, jailing them for a total of 46 years.

Iceland’s Supreme Court has just announced a guilty verdict for 9 bankers involved in the Kaupthing market manipulation case, which was part of the international financial crisis in 2008 that led to the economic crash. The long court trial had has been running since April last year.

YNW reports;

Kaupthing was a big international bank headquartered in Reykjavik, Iceland. It expanded internationally for years, but collapsed in 2008 under huge debts, crippling the small nation’s economy.

By demanding that bankers be subject to the same laws as the rest of society, Iceland opted for a very different strategy in the wake of the financial crisis to rest of Europe and the US, where banks were fined nominal amounts, and directors and chief executives escaped punishment altogether.

While the US and UK governments provided bail outs and government stakes for their big banks with tax-payers’ money – essentially giving bankers the green light to continue behaving in the same way – Iceland adopted a different approach, declaring it would let the banks go bust, weed out and punish the criminal element at the top of the banks, and protect the savings of the people.

Former director of the bank, Hreiðar Már Sigurðsson, who was found guilty and jailed last year, was also given a six-month extension to his sentence on Thursday.

According to Iceland Monitor, the bankers are found guilty of crimes relating to deceitfully financing share purchases – the bank lent money for the purchase of the shares while using its own shares as collateral for the loans.

They are also found guilty of creating a misleading demand for Kaupthing shares by means of deception and pretence.

These guilty verdicts are just the latest in Iceland’s unprecedented clampdown since the economic crash. Authorities have been pursuing bank bosses, chief executives, civil servants and corporate looters for crimes ranging from insider trading to fraud, money laundering, misleading markets, breach of duties and lying to officials.

Meanwhile the economy that collapsed so spectacularly has rebounded after letting its banks go bust, imposing capital controls and protecting its own citizens rather than the elite bank bosses responsible for the mess.

This determination to hold people to account for actions that caused intense financial misery contrasts strongly with the U.K., the rest of Europe and the US. Yes, fines were imposed on the 20 biggest banks for transgressions such as market manipulation, money-laundering and mis-selling mortgages, but these costs fall on shareholders and, by hampering the banks’ ability to lend, they also punish the rest of society.

Meanwhile the guilty senior bankers, thanks to government bail outs, carry on making enormous profits and collecting their obscene bonuses as though nothing happened.

Last year, the International Monetary Fund declared that Iceland had achieved economic recovery “without compromising its welfare model” or unduly punishing its citizens for crimes committed by its bankers.

Iceland is right to jail it’s bankers – and the US and Europe is wrong to merely slap a few wrists and give the green light to future outrages. You can learn about all the details of how exactly the international banksters robbed the global economy in the documentary below;

Sunday, March 13, 2016

Here are 9 reasons Denmark’s socialist economy leaves the US in the dust

Thanks to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders’ proud identification as a Democratic Socialist and allusion to Denmark as an ideal social democracy, Denmark is being discussed throughout the news media. But what few outlets are brave enough to report is that, by almost every measurable standard, Danish socialism runs circles around American capitalism. Here are a few examples:1. Denmark’s unemployed workers get 90 percent of their old salary for 2 years.

Denmark has a tremendous social safety net for unemployed workers — any worker who worked at least 52 weeks over a three-year period can qualify to have 90 percent of their original salary paid for, for up to two years. The Danish government also has plentiful training programs for out-of-work Danes. As a result, 73 percent of Danes between 15 and 64 have a paying job, compared to 67 percent of Americans.

2. Denmark spends far less on healthcare than the US.

World Bank data on healthcare costs in developed nations.

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD), the US spends twice as much per capita on healthcare than in Denmark, where taxpayer-funded universal healthcare is available for all citizens. 2009 OECD data shows that the U.S. spent an average of $7,290 per person on healthcare. Denmark spent just $3,512. World Bank data, as seen in the chart above, shows Danish healthcare costs are about $3,000 less per capita than in the US.

3. Denmark is the happiest country on Earth.

The World Happiness Report, which determines which nation’s population is the “happiest” using criteria like life expectancy, GDP, social safety nets, as well as factors like “perception of corruption” and “freedom to make life choices,” found that Denmark was the happiest country. The US, in the meantime, ranked #17 on the same list.

4. Danes enjoy the world’s shortest workweek.

Denmark leads every other OECD nation in work-life balance. Danes work an average of 37 hours a week, earn an average of $46,000 USD annually, and have the right to 5 weeks of paid vacation per year. Here in the US, the average worker puts in an average of 47 hours a week, and only takes 16 days of vacation a year. This is largely due to a more stressful work climate, in which wages are stagnating while costs are rising. Combine that with a highly-competitive job market, and that means more Americans are willing to chain themselves to their desk then to risk taking vacation days and coming back to find someone else took their job.

5. Denmark pays students $900 a month to attend college.

An actual college campus in Denmark.

Here in the US, the cost of going to college has soared by over 500 percent in the last 30 years. But in Denmark, not only is college free, but students are actually paid $900 USD per month to go to school, provided they live on their own. And this funding lasts up to six years. By contrast, the average US student pays over $31,000 a year in tuition to attend a private university, out-of-state residents at public universities pay $22,000 a year in tuition, and tuition costs for in-state residents at those same universities is still over $9,000.

6. Denmark has one of the highest per-capita incomes in the developed world.

Per capita income data from the World Bank.

In Denmark, despite a short work week and a generous social safety net, workers make more than enough to meet basic needs. According to per capita income data from the World Bank, Denmark’s per capita income is roughly $5,000 higher than in the US.

7. Denmark has one of the world’s lowest poverty rates. The US has one of the highest.

The benefits of living in Denmark are far-reaching — out of all OECD countries, Denmark has the second-lowest poverty rate at 0.6 percent. To compare, the OECD average of 11.3 percent is still lower than the 14.5 percent poverty rate in the US.

So all this socialist nanny-state coddling must be making all the businesses flee Denmark as fast as they can, right?

Wrong.

8. Denmark is ranked the #1 best country for business (The US is ranked #18).

In 2014, Forbes ranked Denmark as the #1 best country for business.

Forbes used 11 different criteria to rank countries — innovation, property rights, red tape, taxes, investor protection, stock market performance, technology, corruption, personal freedom, freedom of trade, and monetary freedom.

Under the same criteria, the US ranked #18.

9. New parents in Denmark get 52 weeks of paid family leave. New American parents get nothing.

The Danish government gives new parents an average of 52 weeks — a full year — of paid time off after having a child. Those 52 weeks can be allocated however the parents wish. In addition to the 52 weeks, new moms get 4 weeks of maternity leave before giving birth and 14 weeks after. Even new fathers get 2 additional weeks after the birth of their child. But here in the US, 1 in 4 new mothers go back to work within two weeks of having a child.

Source: US Uncut