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ICELAND?S VOTERS EXPECTED TO REJECT DEBT DEAL. ?The referendum is being closely watched abroad, whe?

By Glenn Reynolds

ICELAND’S VOTERS EXPECTED TO REJECT DEBT DEAL. “The referendum is being closely watched abroad, where the worry is that people in other financially flailing countries might be emboldened to rise up and refuse to honor financial obligations stemming from the failures of their banks.”

UPDATE: More here. “Ninety-three percent voted against the so-called Icesave bill, according to preliminary results on national broadcaster RUV.”

Related: Mark Steyn: “What’s happening in the developed world today isn’t so very hard to understand: The 20th century Bismarckian welfare state has run out of people to stick it to.” Not directly on point, but . . .

And reader C.J. Burch writes: “Our government is begging for this sort of reaction here, isn’t it?” Well, we haven’t reached Iceland’s situation yet. But if we do, I suspect that Americans will be less well-behaved than Icelanders, even though the Icelanders are being pretty rowdy by Icelandic standards. However, governmental deficits are ultimately limited by what taxpayers will put up with — and at the limits, that’s usually somewhat less than government deficit-runners think they will put up with.

MORE: Report: Only 1.5% voted “yes.” “With 83,478 votes counted following Saturday?s referendum in Iceland, 78,092 are votes to reject December?s Icesave law and 1,284 (1.5 percent) have voted to keep the law in force. 2,830 empty ballots were cast in protest.” Thanks to Andrew Morriss for the link.

Full post as published by Instapundit.com on March 06, 2010 (boomark / email).