Tue 2010-10-12 16:13 EDT

Iceland Rejects Icesave Depositors Bill in Referendum - BusinessWeek [2010-03-07]

Icelanders rejected by a massive majority a bill that would saddle each citizen with $16,400 of debt in protest at U.K. and Dutch demands that they cover losses triggered by the failure of a private bank...Voters rejected the bill because ``ordinary people, farmers and fishermen, taxpayers, doctors, nurses, teachers, are being asked to shoulder through their taxes a burden that was created by irresponsible greedy bankers,'' said President Olafur R. Grimsson, whose rejection of the bill resulted in the plebiscite...Icelanders used the referendum to express their outrage at being asked to take on the obligations of bankers who allowed the island's financial system to create a debt burden more than 10 times the size of the economy...

2010 03 07; BusinessWeek; Iceland Rejects Icesave Depositors Bill; referendum.

Thu 2010-08-26 09:03 EDT

Why Doesn't the United States Have a European-Style Welfare State? | The Weatherhead Center for International Affairs

Alesina, Alberto, Edward L. Glaeser, and Bruce Sacerdote

European countries are much more generous to the poor relative to the US level of generosity. Economic models suggest that redistribution is a function of the variance and skewness of the pre--tax income distribution, the volatility of income (perhaps because of trade shocks), the social costs of taxation and the expected income mobility of the median voter. None of these factors appear to explain the differences between the US and Europe. Instead, the differences appear to be the result of racial heterogeneity in the US and American political institutions. Racial animosity in the US makes redistribution to the poor, who are disproportionately black, unappealing to many voters. American political institutions limited the growth of a socialist party, and more generally limited the political power of the poor. [2001 Brookings Papers on Economic Activity; pdf downloaded]

European-Style Welfare State; internal affairs; United States; Weatherhead Center.

Jesse's Café Américain Tue 2010-03-09 17:47 EST

Iceland Voters Reject Bank Bailouts in Crushing Electoral Defeat; Neo-Liberalism In Context

Jesse

...Iceland is a victim of the neo-liberal economic deregulation of the 1990's, in which a few bankers can buy the government, and rack up enormous profits for themselves in Ponzi like leverage, and then attempt to socialize the debt back to the people when their schemes collapse...

context; crushing electoral defeat; Iceland Voters Reject Bank Bailouts; Jesse's Café Américain; neo-liberalism.

Sun 2008-10-26 00:00 EDT

Joe Bageant: Moving to the Center of Elite Consensus

by "the masked political consultant"; ``what "Moving to the Center," means is: moving towards power and money''; ``What voters are expected to believe is that after a 30-year class war against the bottom 90% of income earners, the source of their troubles are black rappers and inner city fathers and not criminality on Wall Street or a corrupt political system.''; 2008-08-27

center; elite consensus; Joe Bageant; move.

Tue 2008-09-23 00:00 EDT

Michigan Messenger >> Lose your house, lose your vote

by Eartha Jane Melzer; ``Michigan Republicans plan to foreclose African-American voters''

Housing; Lose; Michigan Messenger; voting.