Comments on: Icesave referendum a waste of money or a necessary barometer of opinion?

By: Niels

Niels — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 10:07:52 +0000

Leo,
Totally agree with you. I would like to add though that the present NEW icelandic banks are just phoney banks pushing around phoney money which has no value outside of Iceland while they depend on foreign funding.
If this funding stops and these NEW banks will REALLY fail we’ll speak to yo again, Axel .

I wonder how you’ll feel when you will have to hide your money in an old sock and when you will be forced to repay all your credits immediately to the debti-collector of your old/new bank.

This merely shows that many icelanders have no idea about the way financial systems work.

By: Leo

Leo — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 07:21:03 +0000

Axel, I hate to burst your bubble, but the Icelandic government did save its banks, at least the internal Icelandic part of it. New Landsbanki for example is a continuation of Old Landsbanki with Icelandic deposits and assets. If you really ‘let them fail’, then you have your whole population and all its companies cut off from its deposits and credit lines until the estate of the failed bank is resolved, which can take a few years.

By: Axel

Axel — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 23:50:54 +0000

“People keep saying that the bailout of the banks was for the benefit of the banks. It was not. It was for the benefit of the millions upon millions of people with savingsaccounts, of pensioners drawing money from pension funds, of people with jobs whose companies rely on credit from banks to stay alive. Yes, bankers did also profit from the bailout, and that sucks, but noone profitted more from the bailout than simple Joe Sixpack.”

The entire banking sector in Iceland collapsed in one week, and we are still here, the fact is that they are a burden on the society,
banks today are run like casinos owned by thieves, they should not be bailed out, let them drow in their own pool of sh*t, they deserve it.

By: vic1639

vic1639 — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 18:34:52 +0000

I agree with your comments, mine were made partly to get a reaction. The main problem we now have is the banks that were saved by the taxpayer are treating those taxpayers with contempt, bonuses etc. Our whole banking system needs streamlining, sadly leading to the loss of jobs. If the situation was reversed, then I’m sure that we would vote the same way. Good luck

By: Leo

Leo — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 17:56:46 +0000

vic163, I wonder what kind of life you have? Obviously you don’t have a savingsaccount that could be wiped out by a collapse of the financial system. And you don’t have a job in the private sector, because otherwise you would be hit when your employer can’t pay out your wages because its bank just collapsed. And you are not on government support, because that would get very minimal when millions of people become unemployed after a collapse of the financial sector. And I guess you are not a pensioner either, because the assets of pension funds would be wiped out by the catastrophic economic collapse that would follow a big banking crisis.

People keep saying that the bailout of the banks was for the benefit of the banks. It was not. It was for the benefit of the millions upon millions of people with savingsaccounts, of pensioners drawing money from pension funds, of people with jobs whose companies rely on credit from banks to stay alive. Yes, bankers did also profit from the bailout, and that sucks, but noone profitted more from the bailout than simple Joe Sixpack.

By: Bromley86

Bromley86 — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 16:02:33 +0000

I wish ours would do the same, eg. a vote whether we should have compensated people who had money in your Banks or better still whether we should have bailed out our own Banks.

Really? In that case you’ve come to the right place, because Iceland is a text book exaple of what happens to an economy when all of its banks become insolvent. That’s what the intervention in the UK was designed to prevent.

As any Icelander who had shares what a fun ride it’s been. Likewise, ask anyone with a pension how happy they are. And, even ignoring currency effects, mortgagees and those with loans probably aren’t super-happy at the high interest rates necessary.

By: vic1639

vic1639 — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:50:47 +0000

Came across this site by accident and have to register my surprise for the ‘No’ vote regarding Icelands debt to UK and Holland. No only joking, what the hell does your Goverment expect you to do, I wish ours would do the same, eg. a vote whether we should have compensated people who had money in your Banks or better still whether we should have bailed out our own Banks.

By: Knowless

Knowless — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 12:24:51 +0000

Strange enough (or not), in PISA research (general overview link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Programme_for_International_Student_Assessment) into the education standards of the OECD member states, Iceland comes out significantly well.
link 2006 research
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/15/13/39725224.pdf

In 2003 this test focussed on Mathematics.
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/1/60/34002216.pdf

re Mathematics Performance
“Other countries with mean performances significantly above the OECD average were the Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Belgium, Australia, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Iceland and Austria, as well as the partner countries/economies Macao-China, Liechtenstein, Estonia and Slovenia”

By: Einhver einhverstaðar

Einhver einhverstaðar — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 01:38:23 +0000

It has to be a principal foundation of a soveraeign nation.

By: Einhver einhverstaðar

Einhver einhverstaðar — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 01:31:59 +0000

We don’t give in to terrorist’s…