Icelanders Revolt over paying foreigners while they foot the bill

The Iceland Parliament passed legislation to pay back the U.K. and the Netherlands money lost in the Icesave high interest deposits.

Icelanders think differently. Not surprising since they will foot the bill for $5 billion dollars. For some background, see Iceland Freezes Over on some details of their economic implosion.

Earlier this week parliament approved the amended bill to reimburse Britain and the Netherlands for the amount, which was lost by savers in both countries in 2008 who deposited funds in high-interest "Icesave" online savings accounts.

But the president has yet to sign the bill into law and 56,089 people, who represent 23 percent of the island nation's electorate, have signed the petition, the organizers said.

"I consider it to be a reasonable demand that the economic burden placed on the current and future generations of Icelanders, in the form of a state guarantee for Icesave payments to the UK and Dutch governments, be subject to a national referendum," the text of the petition read.

Now compare that to the United States. We're about to foot the bill for $400 billion dollars in Fannie and Freddie alone!

Update: Iceland President Vetoes Icesave compensation bill:

Iceland was plunged back into crisis after its president refused to sign a bill promising to repay more than €3.8bn (£3.4bn) to Britain and the Netherlands after the collapse of the country's Icesave bank in 2008.

Olafur Grimsson said he would force a referendum on the deeply unpopular legislation, causing a schism within the Icelandic government, with prime minister Johanna Sigurdardottir maintaining that the money would be repaid.

Plunged back into crisis? We'll see, but one thing can be said, Iceland listened to it's people.

Where is our petition, our outrage, our action?

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