Economic Disaster Area » Economic disaster area

Red Christmas

Dadi — Wed, 16 Dec 2009 22:30:37 +0000

The person/group which has been painting the houses of the “Viking Raider” businessmen red has predicted a red Christmas.
To commemorate the occasion he has published a video on Youtube of his previous work.

Good News

Dadi — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 23:26:13 +0000

The winner of the 35,5 million ISK lottery jackpot from last weekend turned out to be an unemployed, young, single mother who’s just lost her apartment. Good for her. Related posts:Are You Better Off Than You Were? Good News And Bad News An Economic Horror Story: The Frightened Generation Of Iceland Related posts:

The Billion ISK Question

Dadi — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:47:08 +0000

“Does the government have a secret long-term plan for dealing with the mortgage problem, or are they just incompetents making stuff up as they go along?”

- Vilhjalm A.

Very good comments from EDA’s readers in response to this story.

ABC Australia: Hook, Line & Sunk

Dadi — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 09:29:58 +0000

A year after the crash, reporter Eric Campbell investigates the tragi-comic saga that saw this nation of 310,000 try to become the new Wall Street. He uncovers not just over-confidence and incompetence but widespread corruption.

‘Some of the ministers from the government had very close ties with these banks and this was never really revealed properly. How is it possible that they allowed the Icelandic banking system to grow ten times the size of our GDP? I mean how is that possible unless you have somebody looking the other way in order to make money out of it? – INDEPENDENT MP BIRGITTA JONSDOTTIR

What’s more, it seems authorities in Britain were grossly negligent in allowing Iceland’s banks to suck in billions of dollars from investors in a promotion that also ensnared hundreds of Australian residents.

Tony Shearer, a prominent British financier, reveals how he tried to warn British authorities that an Icelandic bank trying to take over his merchant bank was funded by ‘funny money’.

‘I went to the regulator ,the financial services authority and told them that I thought there were reasons, very good reasons why they should not approve them as fit and proper people to own a UK bank and so did some of my colleagues as well. They approved it.’

Campbell’s investigation shows how officials across the Atlantic failed to heed warnings that could have stopped the financial collapse. And there are worrying signs that little has changed to prevent it happening again.

‘If we don’t make some quite serious structural changes and change the incentives that that produced this destructive behaviour, we are just setting the conditions for a repeat crisis.” – ROBERT WADE

From ABC in Australia. Watch the video here.

This is actually an entertaining take on the financial crisis. You are treated to a preview from Gunnar Sigurdsson’s documentary where Bjorgolfur Thor claims he has nothing to say to those who call him a criminal. Tony Shearer of Singer & Friedlander claim that he discovered that only 10% of Kaupthing’s profits were made from banking but was ignored by the authorities in the UK should be water on the mill of those who claim that Iceland should not bear an insurmountable burden of IceSave in comparison with the UK. Added with scenery, nightlife and protest footage, what you have is a show worth watching.

Funny how interested the Aussies are in the Icelandic crash compared to the US press which is much closer culturally, geographically, politically and economically. Maybe some nations actually don’t want to learn the lessons of the economic crash.

Is The IMF Stopping The Remittance of Loans?

Dadi — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 08:59:05 +0000

Heard an interesting explanation as to why there isn’t and won’t be an overall remittance of loans. The IMF is against such a measure.

I’m not sure how that can work as the IMF said it would not interfere in in-state matters but let’s suppose it is true.

Then the Progressive Party must surely know this and why are they going on and on about the loan remittance?

Just to collect more angry voters on an empty promise? Wouldn’t be the first time I know.

But how is the IMF exactly expecting the macro economics of Iceland to stay intact if the micro economics are in shatters?

The banks are supposedly working on solutions for their own customers but where is the sense in that?

They would like to believe they are competing in a marketplace where there is supposed to be a winner who offers the best quality at the best prices.

But Iceland isn’t a marketplace, it is an economic disaster area. Why should I get one treatment in my state owned bank, while a friend recieves a different treatment in another?

Please be patient – the relaunch is underway

Dadi — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 12:56:20 +0000

I am relaunching the site and hope you will bear with me for a couple of days while I get my head around this. The reason is that I want to be able to distinguish between my own writing and that of others, incorporate video and photos in a better way.

I spent last week in Austria and the UK. It was good to get away from the athmosphere in Iceland for a bit.

At the airport in Austria we were shocked to see a bottle of water costing 3.75 Euros, around 600 ISK.

I still bought Asics running shoes in the UK. At 50 GBP (just under 10.000 ISK) it made more sense than to buy them there at 15.000 ISK.

We got back on Sunday. On Monday we met up with three of our closest friends. While we were away the third one had lost his job so they were now all unemployed. One from an airline, another from banking and the third from a book-retailer.

Landsbankinn is now offering home loans that aren’t price indexed. A couple of very important questions came to mind, why is one state-owned bank doing this for their customers and the others aren’t? Secondly, how long is the government going to be stubborn about the price-indexation since its own institutions are already heading that way?