by Al Jazeera English
January 25, 2013

from YouTube Website
 


 

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."

 

 

 

"Why do we consider banks to be like holy churches?",

... is the rhetorical question that Iceland's President asks (and answers) in this truly epic three minutes of truthiness from the farce that is the World Economic Forum in Davos.

 

Amid a week of back-slapping and self-congratulatory party-outdoing, as John Aziz notes, the Icelandic President explains why his nation is growing strongly, why unemployment is negligible, and how they moved from the world's poster-child for banking crisis 5 years ago to a thriving nation once again.

 

Simply put, he says,

"we didn't follow the prevailing orthodoxies of the last 30 years in the Western world."

There are lessons here for everyone - as Grimson explains the process of creative destruction that remains much needed in Western economies - though we suspect his holographic pass for next year's Swiss fun will be reneged...