All of this pain could have been averted if a sound monetary system were used.  Any recovery will be greatly hindered unless a sound monetary system is used. From Run to Gold

From Aftenposten

What is an Icelander? A viking? A workaholic? An elf? A bookworm? A strongman? A beauty queen? A musician? A poet? A person of the sea? All nations have stereotypes that are either promoted within their country or those outside it. The French think of themselves as bon vivants, the Americans call them lazy. The [...]

Iceland is a young country. Our institutions and culture are relatively new and in almost all cases borrowed from other cultures. We have never had to figure out for ourselves why we want a particular judicial system or political system. It has just been copied from abroad. Our political parties copy their ideology from parties [...]

What sort of Finance Minister would approve of a 14 billion ISK bailout of Savings and Loan institutions after being one of their shareholders who paid themselves 13 billion ISK in “advanced dividends” this summer? a) Mickey Mouse b) Tony Soprano c) Arni Mathiasen d) All of the above Those who get the correct answer [...]

The Prime Minister’s wages will be lowered by 15% and the salary of other ministers and members of parliament same or a little bit less. The President has asked for his wages to be lowered. Why would anyone ask for lower wages when workers around the world have been fighting for higher pay for centuries? [...]

You sometimes think they are joking but then you find out they’re not. Jon Magnusson, member of parliament for the Liberals asked people not to buy firecrackers for the New Years in a radio interview this morning. By spending money on fireworks they are throwing their money away. As mentioned on this site yesterday, sales [...]

Channel 2 reported tonight that the Icelandic Police is now investigating transfers of around one hundred billion ISK from Kaupthing in Iceland into foreign bank accounts. The bank’s former management is accused of having brought their preferred customers large amounts on a silver platter. According to the Channel’s sources, the police were tipped off two [...]

Video on the collapse of Iceland

Some 2,500 people have applied for Christmas relief packages from Iceland’s three main charities in recent weeks, a 30 per cent rise on last year, as growing numbers of the middle class lose their jobs in the wake of Iceland’s banking collapse. From the Financial Times