This small country, Iceland, is showing us how to get out of the financial crisis. The path he has chosen has nothing to do with Spain, France or the Basque Country. Also in Iceland, abuses of the banking system were the causes of the 2008 crisis: excessive bankers’ greed; bad public and private activities, including corruption; banking deregulation; stubbornness in reducing the public sphere; the multiplication of banking assets; unprecedented increases in real estate assets; the risky capture of liabilities paid at very high interest rates, both domestically and abroad. For many Icelanders, and also for many analysts, this crisis was looting. It exhausted a thriving economy with one of the highest per capita incomes in the world.

A crisis similar to that of the Americans or ours. The answer, however, was very different. The population has moved and since December 2009 there have already been two referendums, the last one last week. In both the UK and Dutch banks, 90% of Icelanders have said they will not pay out of pocket a debt of 4 billion euros. These banks took advantage of the interest of 15% of their deposit in an Icelandic bank and when it went bankrupt they demanded payment of the debt. The Icelandic Government made way for the defeat and the President declared: “People don’t have to pay for bank crap.” He accepted the bankruptcy of this and other banks, in addition to persecuting and arresting the main responsible parties.

When are we going to see the bankers and cash managers here arrested for looting? When will a referendum be held to decide what to do with bank debt? We're not in Iceland!