The Heroism of Iceland's Grimsson, the Man Who Stood Up to the Banksters

Iceland President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson tells Al Jazeera's Stephen Cole that Europe should let banks that are ran "irresponsibly" go bankrupt. Speaking at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Grimsson also held his country as a model of economic recovery after its near-collapse four years ago. "We didn't follow the traditional prevailing orthodoxies. And the end result four years later is that Iceland is enjoying progress and recovery." – Al Jazeera

Dominant Social Theme: This man, this valiant politician, stood up to the banksters and won. Surely he should be king of the world.

Free-Market Analysis: We already wrote about Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson some months ago when the mainstream and alternative media both seemed to discover just how principled and devoted to justice Iceland's president really was.

Now Grimsson, smiling benignly, is back in the news. This mild mannered pol is somehow a hero to a broad spectrum of media types. There is no doubt he provides us with a heroic vision of what government can do to bring the private sector to justice.

Subdominant theme: By God, look at Grimsson! This is all a politician should be ...

Of course, as we have never REALLY met a principled politician, devoted to justice, we decided to take a closer look ... for our own "edification." In the Internet era, you know that is possible. You don't have to take the day off and schlep down to the library. It takes about, oh ... a few keystrokes.

Here's what we reported in "Iceland − Mighty Mite or Green Lapdog? ... 

We're rapidly getting over the idea of Iceland as a courageous "mighty mite" standing up against Europe's "banksters."

Our re-thinking has been caused in part by the posturing of Iceland's president, Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who surely has had a hand in hiring a great scourge of white collar criminals, Ólafur Hauksson.

Hauksson is confident of his goals and like any good authority asks few questions. He is investigating abroad where he "enjoys full international cooperation." Further to his lustrous credentials, we are informed, is his success in arresting various "insider traders" ...

Fresh from his triumphs over the non-existent crime of insider trading, Hauksson is ready to pursue commercial bankers around the world. No doubt the gangs of paper-money neo-national socialists (Greenbackers, Georgists and Social Creditors) who clog the electronic pages of the alternative media these days will rejoice ...

It's kind of funny the way the current public banking proponents point to Iceland as an example of fiscal probity. What currency controls actually are is government's attempt to use monopoly power to force investors and citizens to use only one kind of money, in this case the krona.

It is said that the krona would collapse entirely if currency controls were removed. That's because people do not want their holdings in krona!

Iceland's maladroit government is trapped by its krona dilemma. Pegging the krona to, say, the Canadian loonie might provide a solution but then Iceland's currency is held hostage by the monetary policies of another country. And Canadian central bankers are no more sensible than Icelandic ones.

As for Iceland's largest banks, only one is state owned. The other two apparently are mostly owned by creditors who would love to get their money out in a currency other than the worthless krona. In fact, Iceland's stake in these banks is due to be privatized whenever possible, though that may take a long time. Not exactly a raging endorsement of public banking ...

Iceland's bureaucrats could simply let the krona collapse and allow people to choose the money they want to use. More to the point, those running Iceland's monetary policy could allow citizens to back the krona with gold or silver.

A convertible, gold-backed krona with a market-based ratio and citizen participation would make Iceland a monetary mecca. Iceland's monetary problems would be over the next day.

For us, the peak of Iceland's triumphant resistance was when citizens chased the national assembly out of the back door of the parliamentary building. But it's kind of been downhill since then.

We also pointed out that Grímsson is on his fifth term and part of his strategy evidently was to raise his profile on YouTube with his tale of how Iceland "stood up" to Europe. But Wikipedia tells us the following regarding his views on global issues:

Grímsson has identified the 2009 financial crisis, the need for a green energy revolution, and climate change as the three most pressing issues in today's world. Declaring these three problems to be interconnected, he has said, "None of these three crises can be solved without solving the other."

... In relation to his efforts on these issues, President Grímsson has participated in the Global Creative Leadership Summit organized by the Louise Blouin Foundation, in 2007 and 2008. He was also awarded the Louise T Blouin Award for Creative and Cultural Achievement. In 2008, as a delegate at the Summit he delivered the Keynote Speech on Climate Change versus Globalization.

Wikipedia explains the Foundation organizes the Blouin Creative Leadership Summit as a "think tank" style forum along with various "partners."

The Louise Blouin Foundation is a strategic partner of the United Nations Office for Partnerships. The annual Summit is covered by international media outlets and is accessible online via audio podcasts and videos. The Louise T Blouin Foundation's flagship event took place at Harold Pratt House, New York City in November 2006 ...

By bringing together influential leaders in business, technology, government, science and the arts, the Global Creative Leadership Summit, hosted by the LTB Foundation, hopes to unleash insights that will have practical implications for problem-solving across disciplines. How can business and government leaders benefit from knowing more about how the brain works? How can those who see the world differently come together to break through today's complex challenges?

So this is what Grimsson REALLY is. A career politician and globalist in cahoots with the UN who deeply cares about global warming. He was part of Iceland's banking elite before switching sides and has managed to sustain Iceland's central-banking oriented economy despite its banking problems.

Iceland's political establishment let banks go bust but did so by expanding its control over the krona. The Icelandic economy today is less market responsive than ever before from what we can tell.

Conclusion: People are supposed to focus on putting the "banksters" in jail, and Grimsson has adeptly seized on that meme. He's giving the elite-dominated, mainstream media (and the false-flag alternative media) what they want. Red meat ... markets be damned.

(Video from AussieNews1's YouTube user channel.)