No, it really is that simple. I don't care that the UK says that Iceland has to pay. They just want their money--and they don't get to decide.
Why didn't IceSave depositors do their own due diligence? If I were investing in a foreign private bank with no insurance, I'd sure do some checking around. Government (especially a foreign government) is not there to protect you from your own stupidity.
The fact is, the Icelandic taxpayer did nothing wrong (apart from voting in a government that was beholden to the idiotic deregulation ideology of Milton Friedman) and now they're being asked to foot the bill for a gang of crooks who have all taken their money and fled the country, just because some investors in Europe lost a bunch of money investing in an over-leveraged bank.
I'll ask again: if Nesbitt Burns owed a gajillion dollars to a banker in Brazil, does that mean YOU have to pay, because you're a Canadian? What if the IMF says so? What if Brazil says so?
Sorry--this is fantasyland. There's no "contractual" provision in the EEA that says that members have to give free insurance to stupid investors throughout the region. That's not real life. Real life is this: a person who invests in a bank that has no money is an idiot. When that person loses that money, they become an idiot with less money.
Tell me why government should be involved? Not why the UK thinks they should, or the IMF thinks they should. I want to know why YOU think they should.
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