One only has to look at Iceland’s amazing recovery after the collapse of all three of the country’s major commercial banks to get a sense of the potential of the Occupy movement. Unlike the US, Iceland refused to protect bank creditors and further established an economic crime team to investigate suspicions of criminal actions in the period preceding the collapse that was enabled by deregulation of the banks in 2001. The IMF (International Monetary Fund) sees valuable lessons for success in how Iceland is handling its crisis.
Iceland refused to protect creditors in its banks, which failed in 2008 after their debts bloated to 10 times the size of the economy. The island’s subsequent decision to shield itself from a capital outflow by restricting currency movements allowed the government to ward off a speculative attack, cauterizing the economy’s hemorrhaging. That helped the authorities focus on supporting households and businesses.
One of the major concerns raised by the Occupy movement is debt and pushing back against forcing the 99% to repay the folly of the big banks and their unregulated lending and spending habits while also shouldering the tax burden of the über wealthy.
Since there is no empirical evidence that tax cuts stimulate growth, (and even less that growth is sustainable on a shrinking planet), Occupy is helping to reimagine a new sustainable economy that depends less on resource exploitation and more o delivering services and quality of life.
The Occupy movement is not constrained by party ideology and partisan loyalty but is free to identify inequity on a national, regional and local level and to design grassroots movements to bring about change at home. What succeeds in Coos Bay migrates to Salem, Washington and beyond and bounces back and forth across the nation with its similar threads but unique regional signatures. This is the 99% moment and this anniversary is the first of many.
