VAMPIRE CAPITALISM

Oct 08, 2009

Dear Editor,

I have been monitoring the situation in the Baltic region and Iceland for years, and I am becoming seriously alarmed  at what is happening. 

First, the countries involved become active world market players and foreign investors move in. Second, the banks increase lending beyond limits supportable by the economies. Third, demand is made by the ‘international community’ to make good on liabilities created during the economic boom (which has proven to be artificial and engineered). Fourth, based on activities people of these countries had no control over, they are put to the task of meeting debt obligations through tax hikes and cutbacks. Fifth, the strong get stronger at the expense of the weaker, which is economic vampirism.

Iceland is currently battling the UK and Holland (and the IMF and EU) on the Icesave issue, which places liability obligations entered into by private banks into the laps of a nation that had nothing to do with it. This sets a very dangerous precedent, for if a private entity is at any
time allowed to transfer debt liability to the nation where it operates, it puts every single small country at risk. 

If Iceland accepts the Icesave obligation, my fear is that Latvia, then Lithuania, and then
Estonia, will be next. Most importantly, if international organizations such as the IMF and EU support such a move, it makes their ultimate objective highly questionable.

In addition, I have reservations about the so called ‘international community.’ This community appears to set rules that ultimately crush small and emerging economies. Why should Latvia suffer as a result of excessive lending triggered by Swedish and other foreign activity in the region? Why should Iceland accept liabilities caused by private banks opening savings accounts in the UK and Holland?  If the ‘international community’ fails to see the dangers inherent in the situation, it may not be a community at all but a private club engineered to gain a stranglehold over weaker economic entities. We cannot allow that to happen.

Snorri H. Gudmundsson
Reykjavik, Iceland

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