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Iceland’s President Also Takes on the IMF and the Euro System in Davos Interviews
6 February 2013
COPENHAGEN, (EIRNS) — In a Deutsche Welle interview published Jan. 31 from Davos, Iceland’s President Grimsson repeats his argument against bailing out the banks and implementing austerity, as in his Jan. 25 al-Jazzera interview, but goes further and criticizes the IMF and the euro. Here is that part of the interview by Andreas Becker Q: Do you think the German chancellor, the IMF chief, and all other crisis managers should try and emulate Iceland? A: To some extent it’s correct that the Icelandic experience should be a wake-up call of sorts for others to re-examine their positions and the kind of orthodoxy which has prevailed in the past 30 years. But with respect to the IMF, it’s an interesting story, because when they came to Iceland it was a challenge for them. When the IMF program for Iceland was over about a year and a half ago, we staged a farewell conference. The high IMF officials were honest enough to recognize that they had learned a lot from the Icelandic experience. We’re now going to examine and discuss the prevailing policy recommendations the IMF stuck to in the Asian financial crisis in the previous century. I think I can detect in some of the comments made by IMF chief Lagarde in recent months that she has a different perspective now than many other European leaders.... Despite the smallness, it [Iceland] offers at least interesting test cases that people can use to review some of their prevailing policies which are pushing Europe into extraordinary difficulties. Q: Does Iceland aspire to join the European Union and the Eurozone at all? A: Of course, there’s been a long-standing debate in my country about this. Most of the time, an overwhelming majority of citizens has been against joining the euro for the same reason that Norway voted twice to stay away, and Greenland decided to leave the European Union. There was a time when people thought it would have been easier, had they been part of the euro area. Now we know that’s not the case. If you look at the debates within Europe, or look at northern Europe, all the countries there, Greenland, Iceland, the U.K., Norway, Denmark, Sweden — it’s not until you come to Finland that you find a euro country. Quite clearly, the northern part of Europe has taken a different course, and most of them are actually better off than the rest of Europe. http://www.dw.de/grimsson-imf-learned-new-lessons-in- |
