[...] it any coincidence that the petition presented to Ólafur Ragnar asking him to veto was the work of Magnús Árni Skúlason, a former Progressive Party board member who was forced to resign from the Central Bank after it [...]

[...] it any coincidence that the petition presented to Ólafur Ragnar asking him to veto was the work of Magnús Árni Skúlason, a former Progressive Party board member who was forced to resign from the Central Bank after it [...]

[...] it any coincidence that the petition presented to Ólafur Ragnar asking him to veto was the work of Magnús Árni Skúlason, a former Progressive Party board member who was forced to resign from the Central Bank after it [...]

[...] See the original post here: The IceSave Memorial: How We Got To Where We Are [...]

Mancur Olson kind of “predicts” in his book “The rise and decline of nations” that in democratic countries the big lobbies will sooner or later manage to grab the power.
Their policies will tend to be protectionist and anti-technology, and will therefore hurt economic growth. The benefits of the lobby-policies go to the members of the lobbies, the costs go to the population. This process will sooner or later lead to a demise of the nation. Just happened in Iceland, hn?

According to Olson public resistance against such lobbies is rather unlikely and without succes, since the public doesn’t manage to organise resistance against such lobbies.

I don’t know, my feeling is, that the big lobbies grasp for the power in Germany and EU since a long time now and still want more. I don’t actually understand that we are under such stable circumstances here yet. Maybe Iceland-bashing helps our stability?

I think in smaller nations as in Iceland it should be rather easy to get unsocial behaviour as in the case of the heroes above under control. Everybody knows each other, if someone does bad things he could be sanctioned very easily, hence the temptation to do wrong to others should be very small and so on. I am very surprised actually that the guys above dared to piss on all the Icelanders around them. And even more surprised that they are still alive and doing well. Speaks for the humanist education of the Icelanders.

my cousin and I were talking yesterday about the larger implications of Iceland … i.e. how the world financial system is run.

if we are going to have free flows of money in our countries, we probably also need tighter regulations and fewer currencies

Iceland’s plight is due to lack of regulation and oversight because of an over-reliance on an ideology which preached lax monitoring, absence of checks and balances due to lack of constitutional reform, and predators such as hedge funds lurking in the shelter of strong economies attacking the weak currency.

maybe a new Bretton Woods is needed? What is the UK going to do if Barclay’s implodes?

The US has a stronger constitution and better checks and balances built into its system, but still they are reeling today from a position of undisputed world heavyweight champions ten years ago. Their plight might just be beginning … what are they going to do for example if the OPEC and China move away from the Dollar in oil trade?

so yes, there are many “black swans” out there in my opinion, in the US and the UK especially… and I will maintain my opinion that there is a need for a type of “enlightenment” in Iceland and those countries where I am most familiar with…

Personally I abhor the idea of being ideologically married to a political party, but Icelanders are divided along those lines for better or worse. Does heard mentality occur more easily in small nations? Might be?