Iceland, Dishonest Banks and Debt.

Someone posted a comment on the last post asking what I thought about what happened in Iceland with the banks. Basically, the banks made lots of crazy loans and focused on foreign citizens to move their money to Iceland. That is a really general comment on what happened. This all went on at the same time that our banks were getting into derivatives and other risky investment. For my readers who are not familiar with what happened in Iceland, here is a link.

Wikipedia - 2009 Icelandic financial crisis protests. 

The people of Iceland were asked to bail out the banks that defaulted and they said no. Their economy recovered and they are now fine. We could have done the same and did not. To be specific, President Bush bailed out the banks with tax dollars from you and me.

I was being asked what I would have done. I would have nationalized any bank that the government had to bail out and taken it's assets just like they do when you don't pay your mortgage. Almost all home loans are now owned by the United States government (Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac) and if you cannot pay your mortgage the repossess the property. I would also recommend nationalizing companies that do not pay their taxes and instead hide their money overseas. If you don't pay your taxes they can take your property. Why do the rich get treated differently? That is my response to the comment that was left in a little greater detail.

Now, I am going to write about the newest presidential debate for my next post.