Subject: Left Greens Lead the Polls Fri Jan 23, 2009 11:01 pm
More news from Iceland - the "Left Greens" are heading the polls: the Financial Times says.
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The latest opinion poll conducted by MMR revealed the Left-Green Movement would emerge victorious if elections were held today with 28.5 per cent of vote, compared with 24.3 per cent for Mr Haarde’s Independence party and 17 per cent for the Social Democrats. The Left-Greens – an anti-big business, pro-environment party – have benefited from a dramatic rise in anti-capitalist sentiment in Iceland following the crisis as people expressed disgust at prominent and flashy young businessmen known as the ‘Viking raiders’.
These entrepreneurs led Iceland’s overseas corporate expansion, lived a high life characterised by designer corporate jets, and are regarded as a symbol of the ways in which Iceland lost touch with its more modest and puritan economic past. Mr Haarde’s right wing Independence party introduced the policies that allowed these free marketeers to prosper – alongside large parts of the rest of the population, who got rich speculating in property.
The Left-Green party espouses a radically different set of values and if its recent performance in the polls is matched in May’s election, Iceland will be set on a dramatic new political course. The party’s manifesto states that “all natural resources shall be public property and utilised without reducing them”. It also “rejects further building of power plants for the use of polluting large scale industry and demands conservation of the highland”. This would spell an end to Iceland’s aluminium smelting industry, an important source of revenues.
Iceland’s foreign relations would also undergo a shift, as the Left-Greens have said they will “fight for an independent, Icelandic foreign policy that maintains the sovereignty of Iceland” and “opposes participation in military organisations such as Nato”. In the past, government officials have expressed deep concerns that a victory for the Left-Green party would result in a disastrous government at this critical juncture in Iceland’s history, given its anti-business stance and radically pro-environment manifesto.
These uncertainties will do little to reassure international markets, which remain wary over the the krona. The country’s central bank estimates international investors own up to IKr400bn ($3.2bn, €2.5bn) of Icelandic bonds and has warned it should be prepared for a “massive currency outflow” once the krona is fully refloated.
Subject: Re: The Situation in Iceland - Icelandic Government Falls Fri Jan 23, 2009 11:10 pm
Quote :
Having nationalised Iceland’s three major banks, Prime Minister Geir Haarde stated: “There [was] a very real danger … that the Icelandic economy, in the worst case, could be sucked with the banks into the whirlpool and the result could be national bankruptcy.
“The state now owes more than $60 billion, more than 80% of which was held by the banking sector, which is more than six times its annual gross domestic product.”
In the very short-run, we intend to adopt the following pragmatic mix of conventional and unconventional measures:
To raise the policy interest rate to 18 percent. The Central Bank stands ready to increase it further, but it is unclear that higher interest rates alone will suffice to stem capital outflow. Tight control over banks’ access to Central Bank credits will be maintained to avoid excessive liquidity being drawn down through this route. The Central Bank stands ready to use foreign reserves to prevent excessive króna volatility. Furthermore, the Central Bank is willing to temporarily maintain restrictions on capital account transactions. Such restrictions have considerable adverse implications and the intention is to remove them as soon as possible.
Tight money supply and high interest rates are the opposite of what the British, US, German and UK governments are doing. This has never worked before for the IMF, but what the hell, if its broke, why fix it.
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Subject: Re: The Situation in Iceland - Icelandic Government Falls Sat Jan 24, 2009 12:07 am
Having nationalised Iceland’s three major banks, Prime Minister Geir Haarde stated: “There [was] a very real danger … that the Icelandic economy, in the worst case, could be sucked with the banks into the whirlpool and the result could be national bankruptcy.
“The state now owes more than $60 billion, more than 80% of which was held by the banking sector, which is more than six times its annual gross domestic product.”
They are saying the right-wing "Independence Party" did the below between those years. Sounds like experiments elsewhere alright...
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The regime of former IP prime minister from 1991-2004, David Ottison, implemented “a radical (but now familiar) program of privatization, tax cuts, reductions in spending and deficits, inflation targeting, central bank independence, free trade and exchange rate flexibility”, according to an October 21 Alternet.org article by Toby Sanger.
“Corporate taxes were cut from 50 percent down to 18 percent. Privatization and deregulation were driven directly through the prime minister’s office, and the major banks were privatized.”
And though this stimulated a growth rate of 4% a year for a while, as we know it all came crashing down to leave them with the likes of this:
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The impact has been severe — the Icelandic economy is expected to contract by 10% in 2009, while 2008 growth is expected to be zero.
Immediate job losses are set to be 7000 in a country of only 350,000 people, while the unemployment rate could rise to as high as 8% in 2009 from around 3% currently.
According to an October 15 Bloomberg report, Danske Bank chief analyst Lars Christensen predicted that inflation could rise to 75%, while Iceland’s currency, the krona, has declined in value by 35% this year.
Sweet Jesus on a rubber cross.
How the hell did they let themselves get into such an unholy mess if it does turn out like that with such inflation ??? Was it the promise of prosperity for all and concomittant greed on the part of many or just greed on the part of a few and stupidity and ignorance and laziness on the part of many ?
Being half Green-Left myself I'd reckon they should go along with them although the others (IP) have still a fair bit of support too at 24%. This will be a long and hard struggle between a failed ideology which still possesses some allure and a new necessary one. God knows what shape it will take but it needs to involve a massive (re)education process for an entire population, which we seem to be getting as well. More and more people will start talking in depth about banking and regulation and all that stuff here I imagine, not just nerds on a discussion board.
When they lose everything then they have the nature that's around them and they need to protect that from the inevitable rape that the IMF might want to visit on what resources they have.
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Subject: Re: The Situation in Iceland - Icelandic Government Falls Sat Jan 24, 2009 12:57 am
Sweet Jesus on a rubber cross??
Expression of the year. Didja make it up yourself?? Haven't heard it before.....
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Subject: Re: The Situation in Iceland - Icelandic Government Falls Sat Jan 24, 2009 1:01 am
It sort of comes from a visual 'joke' ..
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Subject: Re: The Situation in Iceland - Icelandic Government Falls Mon Jan 26, 2009 5:14 pm
Examiner:
Quote :
Iceland's government falls
Iceland’s coalition government collapsed today amid a deepening financial crisis.
Prime Minister Geir Haarde said talks between the coalition partners broke down.
Foreign Minister Ingibjorg Gisladottir’s Social Democratic Alliance Party had threatened recently to withdraw from the government.
Mr Haarde said he would speak to Iceland’s president to formally dissolve the government.
REYKJAVIK (Reuters) – Iceland's coalition government collapsed on Monday under the pressures of a financial meltdown and Prime Minister Geir Haarde said he would hand in his resignation to President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson.
"I really regret that we could not continue with this coalition. I believe that that would have been the best result," he told reporters at parliament.
Foreign Minister Ingibjorg Gisladottir, the Social Democrat leader who had been considered a potential replacement for Haarde, announced she would not seek to be prime minister and would take a leave of absence for one or two months.
Haarde's government, a coalition between his Independence Party and the Social Democratic Alliance, has been under pressure since the global financial crisis hit Iceland in October, causing the collapse of its banks following a decade-long boom fueled by cheap foreign funding.
"I will go to the president and hand in the government's resignation. Then I will have a meeting with the opposition leaders to discuss the possibility of a national unity government," Haarde told reporters.
He said he hoped someone from his party could lead a unity government but one analyst said he thought the public would demand change.
"This is not unexpected and at least it is the end of the pain politically. I would view it as good news because it should give us more clarity rather than less," Lars Christensen, head of emerging market research at Danske Bank, said.
"Obviously, the left wing is likely to get a very good showing in the election. The likely verdict of the Icelandic people is that they will want the current government well out of the way."
Polls show both coalition parties trailing the opposition Left-Green Party, indicating that a shift in power is likely.
The government collapse did not cause any new trade in Icelandic CDs or the island country's krona currency.
Haarde had already said on Friday he would not seek re-election because he has cancer, and had proposed an early parliamentary election on May 9. Haarde has said he wanted to keep running Iceland until the vote.
REGULAR PROTESTS
Protests have been held regularly on Saturdays since the crisis started last year and for six days straight since Tuesday last week.
Foreign Minister Gisladottir had several meetings with Haarde over the weekend and on Monday to discuss her conditions to keep their coalition alive.
She had called for the resignation of the board of the central bank and its governor, David Oddsson.
Icelandic media also reported that she had demanded to be prime minister until the election, but on Monday she proposed that Social Affairs Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir take the job instead.
Under the Icelandic constitution, the president is charged with finding a new government with sufficient parliamentary backing.
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Subject: Re: The Situation in Iceland - Icelandic Government Falls Mon Jan 26, 2009 6:12 pm
It looks like its not going to be a question of people fighting to get elected, more like trying to hunt down anyone who's prepared to do the job. Go the Green-Lefts!.. Good luck to them, if they are prepared to give it a try. It will be interesting to see, if they get in, can they make a go of governing, or will they be a new version of Pol Pot.
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Subject: Re: The Situation in Iceland - Icelandic Government Falls Mon Jan 26, 2009 6:57 pm
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Subject: Re: The Situation in Iceland - Icelandic Government Falls Tue Jan 27, 2009 10:28 pm
Max Keiser more than a year ago explaining how low global interest rates were fuelling the Icelandic boom - which inevitably was going to burst.
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Subject: Re: The Situation in Iceland - Icelandic Government Falls Wed Jan 28, 2009 2:03 am
cactus flower wrote:
This describes the IMF imposed solution to Iceland's financial disaster.
In the very short-run, we intend to adopt the following pragmatic mix of conventional and unconventional measures:
To raise the policy interest rate to 18 percent. The Central Bank stands ready to increase it further, but it is unclear that higher interest rates alone will suffice to stem capital outflow. Tight control over banks’ access to Central Bank credits will be maintained to avoid excessive liquidity being drawn down through this route. The Central Bank stands ready to use foreign reserves to prevent excessive króna volatility. Furthermore, the Central Bank is willing to temporarily maintain restrictions on capital account transactions. Such restrictions have considerable adverse implications and the intention is to remove them as soon as possible.
Tight money supply and high interest rates are the opposite of what the British, US, German and UK governments are doing. This has never worked before for the IMF, but what the hell, if its broke, why fix it.
This is exactly what Stiglitz describes as the wrong set of policies in Globalization and its Discontents. Raising interest rates to 18 percent is positively barmy.
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Subject: Re: The Situation in Iceland - Icelandic Government Falls Wed Jan 28, 2009 2:09 am
Quote :
Furthermore, the Central Bank is willing to temporarily maintain restrictions on capital account transactions. Such restrictions have considerable adverse implications and the intention is to remove them as soon as possible.
What sort of restrictions are we talking about here?
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Subject: Re: The Situation in Iceland - Icelandic Government Falls Wed Jan 28, 2009 2:51 am
Not allowed to take their money out of the bank?
There is a dire irony in the fact the the IMF advised Iceland to de-Nationalise its banks a few years ago and now, without reference to that, say that the privatisation of the banks was the start of Iceland's problems.
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Subject: Johanna Sigurdardottir - Caretaker Prime Minister Wed Jan 28, 2009 5:28 pm
The Icelander's have found a caretaker Prime Minister to take over until the election in May.
Quote :
28/01/2009 - 14:05:09 Iceland is set to appoint the world’s first lesbian prime minister and first openly gay head of state – a former flight attendant who rose through the political ranks to become a cabinet minister.
Johanna Sigurdardottir, the 66-year-old social affairs minister, has been picked by her Social Democratic Alliance party to lead an interim government after the country’s conservative-led government collapsed.
Ms Sigurdardottir’s appointment is expected to be confirmed within days by the new ruling coalition of the Alliance party and the Left-Green movement. She would lead Iceland until general elections, expected in May.
Environment Minister Thorunn Sveinbjarnardottir said: “She is respected and loved by all of Iceland.”
Sigurdardottir, 66, has a long background in Icelandic liberal politics. She has been a member of Althingi (the Parliament) since 1978, was Minister of Social Affairs in 1987 until 1994, and again in 2007. She is one of the most popular politicians in the country; in a recent Gallup poll 73 percent of respondents said they were satisfied with her work. She is also the only minister whose popularity had increased compared to a similar poll undertaken in December 2007.
Sigurðardottir is the mother of two grown sons and is married to Icelandic writer and playwright Jonina Leosdottir. She is often described by many of her countrymen as the only politician who really cares about the "little guy." She has devoted her career to fighting for the welfare and equality of minority groups - women, the elderly, the poor, disabled, and immigrants. She holds no fancy foreign diplomas - she has a Commercial degree from the Commercial College of Iceland - nor extensive family or wealth connections like many Icelandic politicians but has diligently worked her way up the political ladder through hard work and determination. Her professional career includes working in the 60s and 70s as a flight attendant for Icelandair (the old Loftleidir Airlines) and an office worker in Reykjavik.
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Subject: Re: The Situation in Iceland - Icelandic Government Falls Sat Jan 31, 2009 12:40 am
A stretch is coming in the mornings in Iceland
Home video - 2min 36 sec
I took this video today ,and the first clip ,is taken at 11:00 this morning - the sun is rising higher in the sky.
And it shows the winter here in Iceland - snow and minus 5 on the celcius And the second part,the ravens - looks like the political climate these days in Iceland.
New goverment is about to be formed,but one of the parties that was going to support in parliement,is not happy. They have seen the goverment aggrement,between the two parties , the Sicial democratic alliance and the Left Green Movement,and the party ,( framsoknarflokkurinn ) the old farmers party ( dont know their name in engish, is coming in with demands ,for changes in the agreemnet.
And this goverment is only to stay for about 90 days - then there will be elections here in ICeland So ,this is about to look like a great thriller movie here. -dorisig
Subject: Re: The Situation in Iceland - Icelandic Government Falls Sat Feb 07, 2009 9:41 pm
'Dorisig' makes regular videos on this crisis. This one is about the new temporary (?) Government and is entitled "New Government in Iceland - Gay Prime Minister". Some good-humoured comments posted under it.
- We had a gay PM who sounded (and some say) looked like a man, now we have a straight married guy who talks like a girl ... ya can't win good luck .... agreed, we all need it, hang on for this rollar coaster with no breaks... except the wall;) -- 'Oilcrash1'
- and why is it so important that she be gay? the most important is how she will govern the country!! -- 'radenec- '
- This is bad news for the economy. Imagine the aount of debt that will be incurred by an already broke Country. Two sets of Shoes, Two Handbags, Two sets of makeup, Two Airdryers, Two curling tongues. All to be imported. The balance of trade will be terrible. I wish the new Minister well. -- 'srtrac'
Another video was posted today and shows them still protesting on the National Robbing that went on. Some germans were numbered among the crowds apparently - they were there in solidarity with the Icelanders who now have to pay for the irresponsibilities of a few which spread like a greedy disease to the many. The video-makers information is posted here:
Here is a video clip of the weekly saturday protest in Iceland.
Still demanding responsabilty by the banking industry and the goverment. Elections and change of the goverment and CEO at the Icelandic Central Bank.
Today there where a few Germans at the protest in Reykjavik. THey are trying to talk to Kaupthing Bank ,about their savings,that they had in Kaupthing Bank in Germany. So the protest in ICeland is going International.
It is very cold in Reykjavik ,just below zero on the celcius scale ,and windy.
One central bank CEO ( there are three CEO at the central bank ) has resigned his post there. David Oddson ,the head of the central bank and former prime minister,has not yet,answered the letter that Johanna,Icelands prime minister,sent him,asking him to resign. She wanted an answer by last thursday,but he has not yet answered her letter.
Protests are planned next mondy at the Central Bank. (sic)
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Subject: Re: The Situation in Iceland - Icelandic Government Falls Thu Mar 05, 2009 7:10 pm
Iceland’s de facto bankruptcy—its currency (the krona) is kaput, its debt is 850 percent of G.D.P., its people are hoarding food and cash and blowing up their new Range Rovers for the insurance—resulted from a stunning collective madness. What led a tiny fishing nation, population 300,000, to decide, around 2003, to re-invent itself as a global financial power?
Last edited by Auditor #9 on Tue Mar 31, 2009 11:01 pm; edited 1 time in total
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Subject: Re: The Situation in Iceland - Icelandic Government Falls Thu Mar 05, 2009 8:16 pm
Auditor #9 wrote:
Iceland’s de facto bankruptcy—its currency (the krona) is kaput, its debt is 850 percent of G.D.P., its people are hoarding food and cash and blowing up their new Range Rovers for the insurance—resulted from a stunning collective madness. What led a tiny fishing nation, population 300,000, to decide, around 2003, to re-invent itself as a global financial power?