Comments on: Icelandic savings banks nationalised

By: SIR EURO (FORMER GUS)

SIR EURO (FORMER GUS) — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:33:42 +0000

THE ISK IS FALLING AGAIN!! 162 PER EURO TODAY!! NEXT WEEK WE WILL SEE THE ISK FALLING AND FALLING… BY THE TIME WE HAVE A NEW GOBERMENT WE WILL SEE THE REAL PRICE OF THE KRONA ( 250-300 ISK= 1 EURO? )

YEAH RIGHT! NOW THE MONEY IS GOING TO BE FOUND AND BROUGHT BACK TO ICELAND… HAHAHAHAHA

ANOTHER JOKE IN THE CIRCUS…

HAHAHAHAHA

WHAT A SHOW!!

By: Bromley86

Bromley86 — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 14:11:45 +0000

Oops, I forgot.
I have to repeat the question, Easy.

“What will EU membership bring for Iceland?”

Össur Skarphédinsson came up with an advantage. Better interest rates on the Icelandic debt.

“If these interest rates drop by only one percent, ISK 23 billion (USD 194 million, EUR 143 million) could be saved. However, according to Fréttabladid’s sources, it is difficult to estimate how much Iceland’s credit terms would improve with an application to the EU.”
http://icelandreview.com/icelandreview/daily_news/?cat_id=16539&ew_0_a_id=321992

By: Øystein;Norge

Øystein;Norge — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 12:42:15 +0000

> Axel.

“im sure we will recover some of the funds who have bee hidden in places like virgin island very soon, lots of people are working on this and they are not dragging their feet, the heat is on :)”

As there is a Nordic cooperation on this, there seems to have been a very good progress on this, and money have been found. There have been done a lot agreements already, this is the latest I know:

http://norden.org/webb/news/news.asp?id=8474&lang=6

By: Easy

Easy — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 10:36:10 +0000

@Axel:
How old are you? keeping the krona stable? from 141 to 160 in 10 days? tell me what stable currency looses 13 % of its value in 10 days, ahh and even when its TOTALLY restricted. Not wasteing money on SPRON? well, there is no money to waste, plus they took spron because is part of the PACKAGE the germans will take, it went to Kaupþing which will go to the Germans, by the way they are not buying it they are just takeing it.

By: Axel

Axel — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 23:07:51 +0000

I dont think Iceland will join the EU, inspite of every thing that has happened no one is talking about EU or euro, its just not something that we want, there is no panic or fear here believe it or not, i dont think this will change no matter what may happen in the future,
Svein Harald Oygard is gettin interest rates and inflation dow and keeping the kr stable, also not wasting money on dead companys like spron who had zero chance of survival,
im sure we will recover some of the funds who have bee hidden in places like virgin island very soon, lots of people are working on this and they are not dragging their feet, the heat is on :)

A interview with Sven Harald, use the link at the bottom “hér” to see it in English
http://visir.is/article/20090326/VIDSKIPTI06/433375722/-1

By: Vilhjalm Antonsen

Vilhjalm Antonsen — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 09:54:58 +0000

The news says that even if Iceland becomes an EU member in 2011, it won’t get the Euro until 2013. A further obtacle is a requirement that debt not exceed 60% of GNP, and it’s not clear that Iceland meet that (actually it’s likely that there’s no chance of meeting that level.)
Until then Iceland will have to survive off the $5 billion from the IMF, $2 billion from Norway, and whatever the government can collect in taxes.
There are 400 billion ISK glacial bonds to service, plus another 200 billion of other national/bond debt, which costs maybe 100-150 billion in interest payments per year (about $1 billion.). Over three years that takes at least $3 billion, plus more money to support the ISK and if any bondholders can cash out.
The government wants to exchange foreign currency debt held by creditors for foreign currency assets held by the pension funds, so even the pension funds will end up cleaned out and holding bags of worthless ISK.
So…. something bad is going to happen, sooner or later.
Most likely the government will maintain its happy face and keep spending and trying to service the debt and then suddenly one day, the government will be completely broke. The country will have an total economic heart-attack and everything will collapse, and this time for real.

By: Peter (Germany)

Peter (Germany) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:33:25 +0000

Niels, East Frisians do have a some sense of humor. :) Quite in contrast to the people living in Swabia, but anyway. ;) BTW: East Frisians are always very jealous of their mighty and economically more successful neighbours in the Netherlands. :) German bureaucracy is a catastrophe, that’s for sure…

East Frisians don’t make use of the ancient frisian language anymore, but there is very typical regional dialect which is very close to the Dutch and also English language and which is unintelligable to people outside Ostfriesland. :)

Sadly, I now have to live in (prosperous) Baden-Württemberg. Thankfully, there a frisians online-shops that dispatch East Frisian tea. :)

Sorry for being off topic, folks!

By: Niels

Niels — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 17:11:42 +0000

Peter,
There are also frisians living in the north of Holland and on Helgoland. Frisians in Holland do consider themselves a distinct people too and they have their own language (which AFAIK is not used in Germany anymore).
I do think that joining Germany as “Nord Helgoland ” or ” Nordwest Friesland” would be a big shock for Iceland:
-good cheap beer (VA already mentioned that one)
-good cheap food
-really cheap supermarkets
-world class hospitals and universities
-best cars in the world
and most important of all: REAL success in soccer!!
On the downside : dealing with german ‘sense of humor’ and burocracy.

I think it would be too much for most icelanders.

By: Alexander E.

Alexander E. — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 16:10:11 +0000

if someone wants to keep a secret Iceland is not the place

Hard to argue

Iceland will get out of this crisis much faster than every one else, and we will also use this crisis to repair some issues in our busyness and politics, which are easy to spot right now,

Everything has its negative and positive sides. Positive side of the crisis – we might get a better new system.

I was going to say a few words to Gus because of his eldless and pointless ranting, but after reading thru some of the posts here above i understand why the article about monkeys being able to show signs of intelligence cougt Alex’s attention.

So have you ever tried to “argue” with monkeys? I don’t think so. It’s also a good idea not to give him “food”… ;-)

By: Peter (Germany)

Peter (Germany) — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 14:39:20 +0000

“Why not just join Germany directly, as a subdividivion of one of the states? Maybe as a Landkreise of East Frisia. For a while the Germans claimed part of Antarctica as their own colony – called Neuschwabenland. So Iceland could be “Neuostfriesland”. Nobody has ever willingly asked to join Germany, except for some poor German descendants on the Volga on Russia. So the Germans would be very flattered. Most of the foreign debt is owed to the Germans – why not just give them the entire country in exchange for the 20 billion euro debt and let the Germans take over everything? The Germans would provide lots of order and discipline. Good cheap beer, too.”

This really made me smile. I am from Ostfriesland, by the way, a region that thinks of itself as being a culture and a country very much disctint from the rest of Germany. So I very much doubt Ostfriesen/East Frisians are typical German. And while they do drink beer once in a while, they prefer Indian Tea – a habit for which East Frisians are famous.

BTW – currently the German media is not really interested in Iceland. They are much more interested in the huge ‘Hypo Real Estate’-mess. A bank nobody knew of before whose stability now the German taxpayer guarantees with nearly 100 bn Euros!!!