Larger Than Life

Article from Washington Post:

Icelanders reject full repayment to British, Dutch caught in bank collapse

By Anthony Faiola
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, March 8, 2010

LONDON -- Icelanders this weekend resoundingly rejected a plan to reimburse overseas depositors after the failure of an online Icelandic bank, a rare public referendum on the repayment of a foreign liability that could fuel further concerns over debt problems in Europe.

A whopping 93 percent of Icelanders rebuffed a government push to reimburse Britain and the Netherlands $5.3 billion from the October 2008 collapse of an Icelandic Internet bank. The failure led Britain and the Netherlands, the two nations where the bank had foreign depositors, to step in and partially pay back billions of euros lost by their citizens, who were lured in by the bank's high interest rates.

The vote on Saturday, with near-final results released Sunday, captured widespread rage in Iceland over years of banking-sector excess that resulted in a financial meltdown at the height of the global financial crisis.

Voters reveled in a carnival atmosphere following the vote, shooting fireworks into the air and raising placards saying "Sorry Darling, No Deal" -- a reference to Britain's Alistair Darling, the finance minister. The vote was, analysts said, an extraordinary outlet for weary Icelanders to express their fury over bank bailouts.

It was also a vote against government officials, analysts said, whom many Icelanders blame for allowing those years of excess to take place. A full repayment to foreign depositors would have amounted to more than $100 per person per month in Iceland for up to eight years. It would have come at a time when unemployment has shot up in Iceland due to a lingering and deep recession.

The result of the vote underscored the risks of global online banking schemes and heightened concerns about some European nations' ability to repay foreign creditors at a time when Greece is in a roiling debt crisis that has raised borrowing rates for a host of European countries with shaky finances.

Most analysts say the Icelandic government will still reach a settlement with London and The Hague. Officials in Reykjavik on Sunday said Iceland was making "progress" on a deal that would be less costly to the tiny island nation of 350,000. Britain and the Netherlands have already indicated that they are willing to accept worse terms than full and speedy repayment.

Darling conceded on Sunday that it could now take "many, many years" before London would see any reimbursement. But he also seemed to strike a conciliatory note, saying both Britain and the Netherlands are willing to be flexible.

"You couldn't just go to a small country like Iceland with a population the size of Wolverhampton and say, 'Look, repay all that money immediately,' " Darling told the BBC. "So we've tried to be reasonable. The fundamental point for us is that we get our money back -- but on the terms and conditions and so on, we're prepared to be flexible."

On Sunday, the Icelandic government of Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir sought to downplay the vote, which some critics have said could even jeopardize Iceland's bailout with the International Monetary Fund. A deal with the British and Dutch is also viewed as key to Iceland's fast entry into the European Union -- deemed vital to the nation's longer-term finances.

Sigurdardottir insisted that despite the vote, the government would keep negotiating a settlement for the fallout of Landsbanki Bank, which operated in Britain and the Netherlands under the name Icesave.

"This result is no surprise," Sigurdardottir told reporters in Reykjavik. "Now we need to get on with the task in front of us, namely to finish the negotiations with the Dutch and the British."
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So, what do you think? Should the Icelandic government pay back the UK and The Netherlands?
Personally, I can see the arguments for doing so, but I can see that the Icelandic population sees nothing in the added interest rates the UK and The Netherlands have added, effectively quadrupling the debt, which - everyone can see this - renders the amount unpayable to that handful of Icelanders...

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My best advice to anyone who wants to raise a happy, mentally healthy child is: Keep him or her as far away from a church as you can.. (F. Zappa)
"How ironic... You eat vegetarian and speak baloney" -- Bucky Catt
Blackadder: Baldrick, have you no idea what irony is?
Baldrick: Yes, it's like goldy and bronzy only it's made out of iron.

I find the whole thing a little odd. From what I gather the referendum is a negotiating ploy which the Icelandic government hopes to use to garner more favorable terms from the UK and the Netherlands...at least that's how the Icelandic government is portraying it. Whether the Icelandic people buy that when a deal is eventually struck remains to be seen.

Iceland should pay what it owes. On the poll here I voted for 'without the interest' because if I was the Brits or the Dutch I'd, taking into consideration Iceland's economic woes, cut them some slack.

Amen. Sure, Iceland should pay - but they shouldn't be

taken to the cleaners on the deal. . .That's just not kosher.

Joe (Bigsky770)

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“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.”

- - Groucho Marx

Sorry to have to agree with everyone so far, (boring I know ) but I just voted "yes, without the interest" as well. Basically, my reason is the same as that posted by Steve:



I also think the bankers around the world, who caused the crisis in the first place should be made to compensate countries like Iceland out of their own personal fortunes, although realistically I can't see that happening ...

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Pobody's nerfect

Hey, but its' the best damned idea I've heard so far! Think of it like this; Goldman-Sachs sold alotta crap very much like this to Greece knowing full well that it was. . .well, umm - 'crap'.

Trace down the ones' who put this 'crap' together and let them stand liable for the reclamation. If no laws were broken, they don't have to do time just 'pay-up' & lose their fortunes. . .I think it would be the best damned lesson in ETHICS a body could learn, don't you?

Joe (Bigsky770)

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“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.”

- - Groucho Marx

The power of peer pressure. *shakes head*



I almost voted the first option.

Finance, all money dealings really, only work because we all insist that they work. Iceland wouldn't have given up any potential profits, wouldn't have allowed the investors EXTRA interest, if things had gone well, would they?.

That said, I don't know why the average taxpayer in Iceland should subsidise any particular bank-scheme. If the Taxpayers had of initiated the scheme, and stood to reap ALL possible benefits themselves, OK, maybe they would be obligated to pay out on a failed scheme.

But as far as I know, it was shonky Icelandic businessmen, who fooled the previous government into underwriting things, right?.

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I would rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy

Me said it.

*NOW*. . .Draw a parallel between Iceland's situ & the ongoing dilemma here in the states, and you will finally understand the reasons why for the "Tea Party" movement in America.

Joe (Bigsky770)

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“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.”

- - Groucho Marx

Does this mean war? Iceland has huge stockpiles of snowballs, you know.

It's like that joke I'd heard awhile back; "Uh-oh. [such-n-such nation] pissed Iceland off, now Iceland is planning an amphibious assault, but this time they're going to use both their landing-craft".

Seriously though - while default crisis such as this certainly doesn't help matters, whats' to be gained? Going to war?

Joe (Bigsky770)

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“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.”

- - Groucho Marx

Iceland kicked out U.N. weapons inspectors and denied having any snowballs or means for enriching them into iceballs. They also said that a huge underground facility--previously unknown--is strictly for manufacturing popcorn, not iceballs. Iceland has also resumed building settlements but no one cares.

We need a smiley where it goes to speak with raised forefinger, stops a moment while the process of thought goes on, shakes that off as a distraction, goes to speak again . . . thinks that through, furrows brow, thinks a bit . . . wanders off rubbing its chin thinking furiously, stops a little bit away, shakes its head, and goes for a lie-down.

Suffice it to say I am momentarily ( MomenTARILY you understand ) at a loss to explain why the two cases are dissimilar.

. . . quite possibly it is the peer pressure I alluded to in a previous post.

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I would rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy

Me said it.

No, I am afraid you have fallen victim to the Icelandic expatriates that form such a powerful lobby group in the media of your country. Have you never seen the by-lines in your newspapers, from members of the various anti-polar bear lobby groups in the US?.

"Polar bear terrorist Plot to damage sauna factory" by Inga Ingasdottir

"Seals funding Secret Polar Bear Terrorist Camp in Greenland" by Siggur Siggursons'son.

On the settlement building, the Pro-Polar bear countries have frequently raised the question with the UN security counsel. Tellingly they have never even been able to force a vote on a resolution condemning the new building . . . a cynical person would point to the valuable Cod Liver Oil shipments the USA recieves from Icelandic refineries.

Ha, I bet you never even heard about the Halibut-on companies' harpoons-for-votes scandel last year, where they tried to rig the local by-election in Sknafealljotsorgundosrod ?.

Tsk tsk, you just don't get it, do you!. Brothers, we must rise up in support of our Ursus Maritimus brethren in their struggle against the Icelandic oppressors, we must walk to victory with them in th . . well, not WITH them of course, not after that bloody mess in the last freedom parade, but we will walk close-ish anyway, but a short sprint from the 4-wheel drive, for safeties sake.

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I would rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy

Me said it.

One problem with entering into any kind of agreement with Iceland, such as a snowball weapons inspection programme is that names of the Icelanders on the agreement won't fit onto a standard sheet of A4 paper. Guðrún Eva Mínervudóttir or Dagur Bergþóruson Eggertsson, for example.

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Pobody's nerfect

Aw hell, with names like that I surrender! Take me to the Iceland Bikini Team!!!

I didn't make it to Iceland, but in Sweden, in a miserable out of the way corner of the city, in a second rate "greasy spoon" hole in the wall eatery, the three female and two male employees, were just STUPID good looking, dog-damned redonkulous attractive stunning mindbogglingly easy on the eye.

The woman I saw walking around the city checking on the rubbish bins, would have been any other countries' Miss World entry.

The lady police officer who got out of her car, crossed the road and all just to tell us lads, while we were in the city, not to forget to visit the oldest post office in Christendom that had continuously operated from the same building ( Why it was a police officers job, I do not know ) quite honestly was more attractive than any person male or female, I had ever seen in my life.

Quite a strange experience walking around the country.

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I would rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy

Me said it.

Well the Swedish Bikini team is more famous than Iceland's.

Sorry, what was that, I was busy googling Swedish bikini team.
, indeed, very very .

In fact, I need lubricant now, my eyeballs have dried out.

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I would rather have a bottle in front of me, than a frontal lobotomy

Me said it.

You have this gift of turning every thread into an off-topic comedy show...

BWAHAHAHAHAAHAHA

Never mind.. My thought: would the Icelandic population have wanted money from the Dutch if the IceSave bank would have had its main offices in Amsterdam? I definitely think they would.

_________________
My best advice to anyone who wants to raise a happy, mentally healthy child is: Keep him or her as far away from a church as you can.. (F. Zappa)
"How ironic... You eat vegetarian and speak baloney" -- Bucky Catt
Blackadder: Baldrick, have you no idea what irony is?
Baldrick: Yes, it's like goldy and bronzy only it's made out of iron.

I may not please some members doing this, but what the heck...


Notice that the Swedish diet of Smorgasbord and salmon mayo does leave it traces...

_________________
My best advice to anyone who wants to raise a happy, mentally healthy child is: Keep him or her as far away from a church as you can.. (F. Zappa)
"How ironic... You eat vegetarian and speak baloney" -- Bucky Catt
Blackadder: Baldrick, have you no idea what irony is?
Baldrick: Yes, it's like goldy and bronzy only it's made out of iron.

- Heard that. Baby's got BACK.

Joe (Bigsky770)

_________________
“Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly, and applying the wrong remedies.”

- - Groucho Marx