Iceland setting example: 10 bankers on trial

Unlike any other country affected by the hyper-abusive criminal practices of the banking sector (not the USA, not Britain, not Spain, not Germany, not Greece...), the small Nordic republic is doing the right thing: rounding up the corrupt bankers and putting them on trial.

Main stockholders and managers of three large Icelandic banks, Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Giltnir, are being prosecuted in their country for the crime of fraudulent appropriation of funds via ad-hoc loans from their own banks. The state administrators of the banks, now nationalized, are also considering raising charges against the auditor of these banks, Pricewaterhouse Coopers, for collaboration with the fraud.

The accused bankers are however exiled in foreign countries like the USA and the UK, and while their assets are being frozen, extradition is not yet granted.

Source: EstrategumTrading (in Spanish).

The volcano that collapsed all

I don't normally write on news that are on the main pages of all media, but the unpredictable consequences of the infamous volcano Eyjafjallajokull really deserve at least a few lines.

First of all, I admit I am guilty of copy-pasting the name of the volcano. Really it will take me more than just a few days to learn to spell that Icelandic word and therefore I have decided to call it simply Eyja, which I hope doesn't offend it.

And anyhow, it was just a matter of time before it was nicknamed somehow, yes or yes?

Impressive image of Eyja borrowed from Al Jazeera

Anyhow, Eyja's polluting power is such that in just a few days of eruption, otherwise not too destructive, it has created such an unprecedented chaos in modern globalized Europe that wealthy men are begging in Warsaw for a ride back home and airlines are rumored to be preparing to fire personnel. Meanwhile the roses from Kenya or the kiwis from Chile can't reach their European markets and the ash cloud has already reached East Asia causing widespread disruption there as well.

But this is probably only the beginning. Vulcanologists can't predict the duration of the eruption but, in any case, so far has only got stronger and stronger. It could be just two days more... or it could be two years. Nobody knows.

The closest precedent is that of Laki volcano, also in Iceland, in 1783, which lasted for eight months and historians link to crop failure and being one of the triggers of the French Revolution.

There are indeed no precedents for such a widespread closure of air space. The closest case experts can think of is the brief closure of US air space after 9/11. But even that is not comparable: now there's no way to predict how will be the situation just a few days ahead... though the most likely is that it will remain the same or even worsen.

And it is affecting the economy: businessmen can't fly to meetings and fairs (even presidents and prime ministers had to suspend their journeys), some imported food will soon become scarce in your local supermarket and some of the most profitable sectors, such as pharmaceutics, rely on air transport heavily. According to The Guardian, even if only 1% of the volume of British foreign trade is done by airplane, it is nothing less than 30% of its exporting value!

Add up all the many disruptions and their cumulative chain effects in the context of an already very severe economic crisis... and let your imagination fly - because there are no precedents, really.

Of course Eyja could stop tomorrow... but that's not very likely to happen.

Iceland massively rejects to pay private debt

93% of voters chose NO in the referendum to validate or reject the bill that approved massive payments to foreign investors for debts acquired by a private bank, Icesavings, now nationalized after going bankrupt.

The Parliament had approved the bill agreeing to pay 5 billion dollars in exchange for a loan of 10 billions and support for an entrance into EU that Icelanders do not seem to desire anymore. However the President of the small republic, in a rare show of politic honesty of the kind you seldom see anymore in this rotten old Europe, vetoed the bill and demanded a referendum that has finally ended in a total defeat for the government. I commented on this neocolonialist abuse in a previous post.

Source: Rebelión, BBC, etc.

Should Iceland pay bank debts with taxpayer's money?

The President of the small North Atlantic country, Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, has vetoed a bill designed to satisfy the blood-sucking international financial institutions such as the IMF and the EU by using taxpayers' money to pay debts acquired by a now nationalized private bank, owed to mostly Dutch and British citizens.

If the bill would be approved, each Icelander would have to pay 12,000 euros on average, for debts they did not generate. I'm not sure how are salaries in Iceland but here it would amount to a full year salary for the typical low wage worker.

In exchange they would get a roughly 10 billion dollar loan. So in exchange of paying more than 5 billion dollars, they'd get a loan that would further indebt the nation. It looks like a total neocolonial scam of the ones the infamous IMF usually organizes.

President Grimsson has yielded to a civic campaign that demands a referendum on the matter. If the bill goes to referendum it is very likely it will be rejected. Logically normal citizens see absolutely no point nor logic on assuming the debt generated by private capitalists.

Source: BBC.