Are we all in this together?

The current uber strategy for protecting the status quo in this crisis is to prevent debts from being reneged on.

Only Iceland has truly revolted, throwing out the EU/IMF, and it’s strategy has worked:

“Unlike other nations, including the U.S. and Ireland, which injected billions of dollars of capital into their financial institutions to keep them afloat, Iceland placed its biggest lenders in receivership. It chose not to protect creditors of the country’s banks……

Iceland’s minister of economic affairs, says the decision to make debt holders share the pain saved the country’s future. With the economy projected to grow 3 percent this year, Iceland’s decision to let the banks fail is looking smart – and may prove to be a model for others.”

Iceland proves Ireland did wrong thing by saving banks

I can’t see a way to resolve the “privatised profits and socialised losses” asymmetry that the UK, Ireland and the US etc are still mired in, without first restoring “privatised losses”. The longer the status quo remains, the longer the imbalance is in place.

To (partially) borrow from Michael Hudson: “Debts that can’t be paid, shouldn’t be paid”.

Without making debt holders “share the pain”, we’re not quite “all in this together” are we?

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