[Left the Party]

An update:

Icelandic government becomes first to be brought down by the credit crunch

[Left the Party]

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How Iceland Fell

By Rev. JOSÉ M. TIRADO

Activists of the world can take heart. Yesterday, Morgunbladid, the largest newspaper in Iceland announced the end of the coalition government responsible for the huge financial crisis which has rocked this North Atlantic island to its volcanic core. This event is relevant for a number of reasons, not least of which is the non-violent resistance which has now succeeded in forcing the downfall of a government whose leaders have been copying the American example in banking for years.

Icelanders, beginning shortly after the government intervened and nationalized the three largest banks upon their collapse, signaled their displeasure with the government and week after week were demanding that the entire cabinet step down, en masse. Well, they now have and it is a victory for democracy lovers everywhere...

How Iceland Fell

[Left the Party]

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Battered Iceland pins its hopes on Johanna Sigurdardottir, world’s first lesbian PM


Sigridur Vidis Jonsdottir, Reykjavik

ICELAND was preparing yesterday for the appointment of Johanna Sigurdardottir as the country’s first female prime minister and the world’s first openly gay premier in the hope that she can lead the country out of financial meltdown.

Sigurdardottir, 66, is a former air stewardess who was divorced from the father of her two sons, a banker, and now lives with her British-educated girlfriend Jonina Leosdottir, a 54-year-old author, playwright and journalist. The couple signed a civil partnership agreement in 2002...

http://www.timesonli...icle5627522.ece

[Left the Party]

Here's an update on Iceland.



Cover Cost of Bank Bailouts? Only 2% of Icelanders Say "Yes"

By John Nichols 3/6/10 The Nation

What if Americans had been asked whether they wanted to bail out big bankers and Wall Street speculators?

How loudly would they have said "no"?

Let's hope they would have done so as resoundingly as have the voters of Iceland, who on Saturday rejected demands by the United Kingdom and the Netherlands -- working hand-in-hand with the rapaciuous International Monetary Fund -- that the people of the tiny island nation cover losses triggered by the failure of a private bank.

A "yes" vote on Saturday's referendum would have saddled each citizen of Iceland with $16,400 of debt, with the money to be paid to compensate the British and Dutch governments for expenditures to cover depositor losses stemming from the failure of the Icelandic bank Icesave.

The overall debt of $5.3 billion, or 45 percent of Iceland's economic output for last year, would have impoverished the country.

As Icelandic President Olafur R. Grimsson explained this week: "Ordinary people, farmers and fishermen, taxpayers, doctors, nurses, teachers, (were) being asked to shoulder through their taxes a burden that was created by irresponsible greedy bankers."

Rest at link

[MrReality]

Zim, on 23 October 2008 - 07:09 AM, said:

Amazing - all this time they've been humming along just fine and dandy, and within 10 years of adopting a Right Wing American economic philosophy, their country collapses. Says a lot about the unfettered free market, laisse faire, trickle down theory, don't it?

Lisa

Yeah, it's a good thing Iceland failed. Now left wing philosophy must be proven to be the most effective system.

Just like in the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Venezuela.... Oh goody, all those countries are frolicking in the meadows with left wing philosophy, huh?

Wise up.

[CaptKirk]

MrReality, on 10 March 2010 - 11:43 PM, said:

Zim, on 23 October 2008 - 07:09 AM, said:

Amazing - all this time they've been humming along just fine and dandy, and within 10 years of adopting a Right Wing American economic philosophy, their country collapses. Says a lot about the unfettered free market, laisse faire, trickle down theory, don't it?

Lisa

Yeah, it's a good thing Iceland failed. Now left wing philosophy must be proven to be the most effective system.

Just like in the Soviet Union, China, North Korea, Cuba, Vietnam, Venezuela.... Oh goody, all those countries are frolicking in the meadows with left wing philosophy, huh?

Wise up.

Can you explain why most of the Soshulist COMMIE! EU has a lower debt (as a %age of GDP) than the United States, oh allegedly wise one?