U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (R) kisses Iceland's Prime Minister Geir Haarde after a signing ceremony at the State Department in Washington October 11, 2006. REUTERS/Jim Young (UNITED STATES) - (click here)
The Bush Years have been extremely difficult on Iceland. It met the USA demands for alliance help in Iraq by sending some of its military to support the USA troops, but, that alliance was completely disasterous to its economy. During the years Iceland was affilitated with its support in Iraq, the USA cut major spending on foreign bases in Iceland. Some of that was due to the fact that 'Star Wars' was to have a trangulation component in Iceland and the small country simply didn't want to be 'in the way' of profound retaliation by Russia and potentially China in alliance with Russia.
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Iceland holds breath on fate of government (click here)
By Alex on Jan 26, 2009
A series of meetings is taking place today between the government coalition parties of Iceland, between the party leaders and internal party meetings.
Iceland’s political future is not yet known, but all sides appear committed to coming to a firm decision today.
Options include continuing as things are until the election on 9th May, or continuing the current coalition with a significant reshuffle (possibly including a Social Democrat Prime Minister instead of the current Independence Party one). Other options are a Social Democrat/Left Green/Progressive Party coalition, or a Social Democrat/Left Green Party minority government coalition.
IceNews will keep you updated as new details emerge
A few days ago this report came out of Iceland that protestors were overtaking their government. That, by the way is not a difficult task. Icelanders are usually extreme pacificists and seek domestic peace and tranquility amoung its' thermo-energy dynamics. When Icelanders turn their plows into swords (euphemistically speaking) then there is something drasticly "W"rong in the world. They accepted 'their place' when it came to Iraq, but, when the entire Icelandic banking infrastructure was degraded and food was hard pressed to be found on the table, that was the 'last straw.'
continued below, thank you:
Iceland: Rioters Attack Parliament (click here)
author: None Of Your ConcernJan 22, 2009 17:05
"But we did it peacefully!", the jubilant disciple screams at the nihilist. "What did you do peacefully?" the nihilist asks. "We changed everything." "Please," the nihilist says. "What did you change?" "Everything" "Everything?" "Everything." The ice fell into the ocean. No one had any money.
While Americans were watching the historic inauguration of Barack Obama as successor to the deeply unpopular conservative George W. Bush, thousands of Iceland's citizens were fighting riot police around the Icelandic parliament building Althingi to try to prevent the world's oldest parliament from meeting. "We are calling on the world to help us get rid of this corrupt government," Sturla Jonsson, one of protesters said in a midnight phone call from downtown Reykjavik where a crowd of about 2,000 still surrounded the Althingi House, in front of which a bonfire continued to burn. The protesters pounded drums and other instruments, shouted slogans against the government and parliament and threw eggs and food items, even old shoes at the house of parliament. The protest was nowhere close to slowing down despite it being close to midnight. The parliament postponed meeting until tomorrow afternoon, but protesters, whom police fought all day with teargas, pepperspray, and clubs, vowed to stay downtown all night, "and as long as we have to" Jonsson said. "And I want to tell you that the people gathered here are not "activists" or "militants," he added, "they are just ordinary adults of all ages." One year ago, Iceland was named the most desirable country in the world. Today, its economy has been devastated by the catastrophic collapse of its three largest banks. Unemployment rose 45% between November and December, and a recent survey indicated that 40% of households and 70% of businesses were technically bankrupt. Since the fall of the banks in October, there have been no resignations from the government, the boards of the now nationalized banks have remained substantially the same, and weekly gatherings calling for new elections have been ignored....
There was more 'steam' added to the outrage by the citizens of Iceland when they found Geir Haarde (click here), their former Prime Minister named as one of the 25 most responsible people contributing to the economic collapse of the Free World. Icelanders need some reassurance that their Prime Minister alone did not cause the collapse and more than anyone else in the global economy of The West, it was George W. Bush most responsible. Hopefully, the American outrage will continue in harmony with Iceland's and bring resolve under the new President of the USA.
I believe the 'profound' truth to the global economic crisis, now striking at the heart of the 'supply side' of the economics is that 'I TOLD YOU SO,' was sounded a full three years before any adverse consequences and it was ignored. The 'real question' is why was it ignored.
He told us so (click here)
They called him Dr Doom. He was the economist who three years ago predicted in detail a collapse of the housing market and worldwide recession - and was roundly ridiculed for it. Emma Brockes asks Nouriel Roubini what he foresees now...
The "Dr. Doom" report occurred before Hank Paulson from Goldman-Sachs took office as Treasury Secretary. In retaliation to the reports by Nouriel Roubini, Goldman-Sachs started a PR campaign that would later result in the resignation of Snow the USA Treasury Secretary and the confirmation of Hank Paulson. Paulson continued 'the denial' of obvious issues within the financial sector and road the USA economy to an all time high in the Dow of 14,000 (click here).
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...Goldman Sachs was angry with Roubini for making public statements about its poor financial health, and fought back through press statements accusing him of working from nothing more than gut instinct. (This was before the investment bank posted losses of $2.2bn.) Like the BBC's Robert Peston, he has been accused of making a bad situation worse by talking it up in public. Roubini finds this absurd. "If Ben Bernanke speaks, he can move markets, but this idea that the media is making a bigger fuss than there is [cause for] is silly. This is the worst financial crisis we've had since the Great Depression. It's going to be the worst recession the global economy has had for the last 50 years. If anything, the media were ignoring what was going on for too long. The idea that it's all driven by panic and by lack of confidence, in my view, is nonsense. If you are a consumer, think about the fundamentals: negative savings for the last couple of years, debt growth, falling home prices, losing 50% of your equity values, falling employment, everything else is going wrong for you. Of course consumer confidence is going down the tube, but is it because people are irrational? No. Your income is falling, you lose your home, you lose on the stock market. Debt, income, jobs, houses, wealth, all the things that affect welfare. If that's not bad, what's bad?"...
The entire manipulation of the 'all time high' (which wouldn't be seen again until the American people 're-harness' a manufacturing, energy and transportation sector) of the DOW was 'all steam' and no substance. It was 'blostered' on investor confidence and nothing else. It was easy to inflat egos to believe the potential was endless when investors simply continued to 'play the markets' for profit rather than 'invest' in markets for POTENTIAL.
See it goes like this and why it was easy for Nouriel Roubini to see the end coming. Markets are supposed to be places where investors can 'facilitate' expansion of 'sectors' by adding needed capital. When a company, as example Krispy Kreme, enters the market it is because it is a proven producer. So, when investors examine the prospectus of any future potential they may have many 'throughts' in mind when doing so, but the purpose of a company becoming a member of the DOW is to obtain investor capital and grow, hence returning 'dividends' to those investors. The 'dividends' are SUPPOSED to be the 'confidence' the investors seek.
The problem is that there is this 'air' that exists called 'speculation' and it can be manipulated to some extent by people who purport to 'know what is best' for investors and make market decisions for them. What Goldman-Sachs did and continues to do is supply 'air' to that speculation and when Nouriel Roubini openly stated there was a limit to any market strategy and that the current trend in 2005 was dangerous, Goldman-Sachs went ballistic and started their own campaign to 'divert' the 'truth and reality' of deception to investor profiles.
In my opinion, Goldman-Sachs was always a marginal company and should have been one of the first to be destroyed by greed and 'bad ideas.' That isn't what happened, instead, they sacrificed their CEO (A rather drastic move, wouldn't you say?) to the Bush Administration which had a HUGE 'interest' in the denial of Nouriel Roubini TRUTH. You getting the picture?
At the time when Nouriel Roubini stated the markets were headed for a huge downturn instead of harnessing 'the truth' and 'stemming' any collapse, Walker Bush decided on a Champion that would 'rocket' the markets and make a liar of Nouriel Roubini. Both Bush and Goldman-Sachs had huge interest in 'making' Nouriel Roubini to be a liar. No different than denying Human Induced Global Warming. THERE was what exactly at the center of 'the market collapse?' Come on. Based on this premise what was at the 'center' of the market collapse and why it happened?
Right. Politics and the Republican agenda for greed. Nothing else. The Republicans didn't care about the country and took all the information before them and DECIDED to 'sacrifice' the lamb rather than herding the flock. They figured if there was dire consequences on the horizon for the markets it would mean their political downfall as well. So, they slaughtered the fatted calf and decided 'if they were going to lose' THAN everyone else would as well.
The collapse of the Free World Capital Markets was due to politics NOT good government. Just that simple. Bush and Paulson 'gambled' they would win. They took speculation to the level of the USA Treasury and lost it all. The world has no other people to blame because Goldman-Sachs has been providing the necessary propaganda the entire time.
I do honestly believe most other government leaders are somewhat 'innocent' in the charges by others and while everyone can attempt to 'find the ROOT cause' of the collapse; or as Bush would say 'recession' that Iceland along with other small countires is a PROFOUND Depression; the ULTIMATE responsibility is The Republican Politica Agenda and its lack of loyalty to 'the truth' and 'good government.' The USA Republican Party runs on rhetoric and when that is tarnished by 'bad faith' in their 'philosophy/fiscal religion' than they lose elections. When investors in the USA 'get hungry' for money they turn on 'good government' and opt for people like Reagan to be elected to deregulate and exploit the USA for purposes of greed.
The USA has to 'establish' an 'honest' economy and stabilize it in the global market place so that morons that come from the RNC no longer can 'outsource' everything Americans work hard to build.
