ELVIRA MÉNDEZ / Profesora de Derecho en la Universidad de Islandia
“Moriremos diciendo a los nietos que no confíen en los bancos”
La profesora española luchó contra los abusos de la banca en Islandia
Óscar Gutiérrez Garrido 25 NOV 2012 - 00:00 CET
ELVIRA MENDEZ / Professor of Law at the University of Iceland
"We will die telling their grandchildren do not trust banks"
The Spanish teacher fought against abuses of banking in Iceland
Óscar Gutiérrez Garrido 25 NOV 2012 - 00:00 CET
That an Icelandic recommend talking to a Spanish to understand some of the things that have passed since the fairy tale in which he lived his country would collapse in October 2008 by a financial bump does not seem real. But it is without elves involved. "If I were you," suggested the MP Birgitta Jónsdóttir in a cafe in downtown Reykjavik during a talk held in February, "the Spanish asked Elvira Mendez, everyone knows, is a reference". And both. She single-or almost-led the Icelandic Supreme Court to seal the unconstitutional clause linking the loans taken to the foreign currency, one of the tricks of the financial Vikings tightened the noose over citizens-especially the mortgage- after the collapse of its banks and the collapse of the crown. Professor of Law at the University of Iceland, Mendez, after 11 years of residence in the capital of Iceland, spent last summer trying to crumble the keys to the crisis, with a very personal dressing: their experience and the Spanish reference. "At first I was not sure about the book," he says in a telephone interview, "but I saw that there were many interested parties, who not only wanted a starter, but wanted to understand." And he got it. The result has title: The Revolution of the Vikings (Editorial Planeta).
Question. Can Spain be fixed even in the mirror of the Icelandic Crisis?
Response. Yes and no. Reality is complex. You can learn a lot from our mistakes and successes. The economic and political system in Iceland is a small country but it is similar to Spanish, but the differences come from Spain's membership of the EU, euro area and EMU. You can learn that austerity alone will not work. [The Nobel laureate economist Joseph] Stiglitz often repeats. In Iceland there were cuts rational, coordinating times. We were lucky that the crisis was in October 2008, as well with all proceeds during the year, the budget for the following was not austere. Furthermore, the center-left government has sought to preserve the Nordic welfare state. That created a mattress. There was a two-year moratorium on evictions, more general than in Spain. There was a moratorium on all that weighed IMF control: if one showed difficulties, which had assumed a debt in good faith, a specific family situation ... There were no evictions in almost two years. In 2010, when the moratorium would end, there was a large demonstration and expanded, but it is over. Evictions have begun and we again have a problem.
P. What recipes have worked?
R. The State declared bankrupt three major banks, raised three new computers and bank deposits created for residents with the amount that would have been. It also imposed a comprehensive capital controls still exists. No money is taken out of the country that is not linked to the real economy. Now if one has to operate abroad or send money to a sick relative, of course they give you permission. If there are transactions of goods and services, sales, yes, but equity capital, no.
This teacher did in Reykjavik in court noose tightened relieve thousands of mortgaged
P. Would you could serve it to Spain?
R. The EU is already taking note. Creditors, investors have to suffer losses, but can not be transferred to the taxpayer or the middle class. Membership in the euro zone is still very bad for Spain because it frees their monetary and fiscal policy.
P. That is, the key is to move the first impact of the crisis to creditors.
R. The first is to go to the source of the problem: a debt unreal detached from economic activity. In Iceland, according to research by Parliament, prompting the bankruptcy was not private debt was not someone buy a flat screen, a car or a house. 80% of the debt was held by other banks, friends or owners thereof [financial institutions] to purchase overseas companies to four times its price. In Spain there are also private debt, companies and families, but I imagine that a lot of the construction debt. Would have to determine which debt can be paid, what is moral debt to help pay society and what not. The right to housing society mandate that attend a family that has borrowed in good faith for the purchase of your residence. And in Iceland, should impose capital controls so that the money does not come out. If not, it creates a capital flight. What has been done in Iceland can be done, but at European level.
"Spain, Iceland, has to determine what is moral debt to help pay society and what is not"
P. How did Iceland recover in just over three years?
R. He has recovered from the real economy. The cuts have been staggered, has sought fiscal and budgetary adjustment to not cause poverty and social exclusion, but also occurred, but tried to avoid. The key is not indiscriminate bailout of banks, which has lifted Iceland fate of Greece, Ireland and Spain. They got rid of foreign debt. And inside, the bank, which has taken the State, it has been assumed that Iceland did not have a large deficit. In addition to the yard [capital controls] not take the money of the country, flowing, flowing and flowing like a game of snakes and ladders. And we must bear in mind that VAT is 25.5%. At the same time it has really helped the three sectors that caused the massive arrival of foreign fishing, aluminum and tourism. The import of luxury goods, which the Icelanders were regulars, descends. You stop import, export it, you balance the trade balance and the money circulates, as the bank is not engaged in speculation, focuses on its customers. The criterion of territoriality, Iceland first, is what the country is rising, but that goes against the European single mercando. It is the policy of ourselves first and then too.
P. Is there Vikings in Spain that led to Iceland's financial collapse?
R. The Vikings called expansive: they are about 40 people, entrepreneurs very aggressive, very young, all men between 30 and 50, who went to the United States and imported the casino business model. In Spain there has also been an elite that has fallen into the same, but, of course, are 46 million inhabitants. Until there is an investigation can not put names.
P. Despite the figures, a whole generation in Iceland is marked by the crisis.
R. The bill has passed the crisis is unforgettable. We die telling their grandchildren do not trust banks. He has left us very marked. The worst off were the young people who had put all his savings on the first floor, and as the debt was indexed to foreign currencies, are now half a house. Many have left the country, they have the keys and undersold the house. These people are not going to forget that deprived them of their future. In Iceland, about 5,000 babies are born annually. In two years, 20,000 people have left, of them, 10,000 Icelanders. They have lost two generations, but now starting to return. Those over 60, who lost their savings, are also marked. Who pulls the country? Those who have fallen, those between 40 and 60 years. But Icelanders did not complain in public. They are a people who look forward to better times. That bill is also coming to Spain.
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