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What Does It Mean ? What does this all mean for the Ground Crew ?

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Old 12-02-2008, 09:54 AM   #1
Antaletriangle
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Default Icelanders storm bank.

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/...d-Meltdown.php

REYKJAVIK, Iceland: Thousands of Icelanders marked the 90th anniversary of their nation's sovereignty with angry protest Monday, and several hundred stormed the central bank to demand the ouster of bankers they blame for the country's spectacular economic meltdown.

Tiny Iceland has seen its banks and currency collapse in just a few weeks while prices and unemployment soar — leaving a country regarded as a model of Scandinavian prosperity in a state of shock.

"The government played roulette and the whole nation has lost," writer Einar Mar Gudmundsson told a noisy but peaceful anti-government rally of several thousand people in downtown Reykjavik.

After the rally, hundreds of protesters stormed the headquarters of Sedlabanki, Iceland's central bank, demanding the sacking of its chief, David Oddsson.

The demonstrators staged an hour-long standoff with shield-wielding riot police inside the bank's lobby, singing songs and chanting "Out with David" and "Power to the People." The protest ended peacefully when both police and demonstrators agreed to withdraw.

Today in Europe
As Russia rises, a test for BerlinAngela Merkel wins re-election as head of Germany's Christian DemocratsOutrage in Britain over lawmaker's arrestAnti-government protests have been growing larger and angrier since Iceland's three main banks collapsed in October under the weight of huge debts amassed during years of rapid economic growth.

Since then the value of the country's currency, the krona, has plummeted. Icelanders who grew used to buying houses and cars with easily available foreign-currency loans now struggle to repay them. The cost of everyday goods is skyrocketing — furniture retailer Ikea hiked its prices by 25 percent last month.

Iceland has been forced to seek $10 billion in aid from the International Monetary Fund and individual countries.

Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde told The Associated Press on Saturday that Iceland's economy would get even worse next year, with a "severe drop" in GDP and purchasing power and rising unemployment.

Haarde said he does not accept personal responsibility for the crisis. He blames commercial bankers who expanded recklessly in the wake of a mid-1990s stock market boom.

But the protest organizers and many other Icelanders say government oversight of the banks was too weak. They want Haarde's coalition government to resign and hold new elections by next spring. By law, Haarde does not have to call a vote until 2011.

Settled by Vikings more than 1,000 years ago and later colonized by Denmark, Iceland became a self-governing country under the Danish crown on Dec. 1, 1918. The volcanic island gained full independence in 1944.

Throughout the anniversary Monday, Icelanders threw taunts, the occasional egg and acts of political theater at a government many now hold in contempt.

Much of the protest — held on a wind-swept hill overlooked by a statue of Iceland's first Viking settler, Ingolfur Arnarson — had a distinctively Nordic flavor. One protester threw meat and cheese onto the lawn of nearby Government House, encouraging the ravens to come and whisk the government away.

Artist Hildur Margretadottir came to the demonstration holding an artificial horse's head on a stick — her version of an old Norse technique for putting a curse on an enemy.
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Old 12-02-2008, 10:23 PM   #2
Humble Janitor
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Default Re: Icelanders storm bank.

We need to storm the banks here in the US as well.

Hold the international banker cabal responsible for the destruction of the world at the hands of their carelessness.
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Old 12-02-2008, 10:49 PM   #3
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Default Re: Icelanders storm bank.

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Originally Posted by Humble Janitor View Post

Hold the international banker cabal responsible for the destruction of the world at the hands of their carelessness.
Not carelessness..

The global financial meltdown was planned long ago imho, and we aint seen the worst of it yet..
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Old 12-02-2008, 10:56 PM   #4
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Default Re: Icelanders storm bank.

Commerce, Politics, Religion...as we know them...around the world...
Are Going, Going, GONE!!!

ANYTHING "Laced With Deceit" IS DONE!!!
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Old 12-02-2008, 10:57 PM   #5
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Default Re: Icelanders storm bank.

Hi Colin,

Yes, the worst is to come. We will all soon be left on our own. So get with ground crews and meet like your future depends on it.
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Old 12-02-2008, 11:05 PM   #6
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Default Re: Icelanders storm bank.

Thanks for picking up this article! I believe this is the grim reality, that may effect nations, including ourselves, in 2009-10. Iceland just got it first, because its fairly a small country of about 300,000. In America, we are about 300 million. If you do the math, the U.S will become effected, just like Iceland in about a year or two.

I would advise that everyone follow Iceland "closely", so we all can learn and be prepared for whats coming to our shores very soon.
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Old 12-02-2008, 11:17 PM   #7
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Default Re: Icelanders storm bank.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/to...cle5209440.ece
then there is this here with the U.K.
Britain is in no position to laugh at Iceland’s problems

This goes along with colin's statement.

Is Britain simply a bigger version of Iceland? Certainly the City of London is starting to look a bit too much like Reykjavik, but with taller buildings and fewer cod. It is an exaggeration, but not that much of an exaggeration, to liken the UK to the broken, bankrupt North Atlantic island.

Like Iceland, we boast a huge banking industry out of all proportion to the overall economy. Like Iceland, we have an unfunded depositor lifeboat scheme totally unequipped to grapple with failing banks. Like Iceland, our national output is dwarfed by the vast liabilities of our banks. Like Iceland, our banks for years scoffed at relying on domestic depositors to fund their activities and developed a dangerous addiction to wholesale money. Like Iceland, our Government is poised to go on a borrowing spree to try to soften the pain. Like Iceland, our currency is on the skids as foreign investors pull out.

Our problems are not nearly so extreme, of course, but we’d be foolish to feel terribly smug as the International Monetary Fund and Scandinavian neighbours go in to bathe Iceland’s wounds.

The scale of our problems has still not been understood. In essence the domestic banks are largely bust. The Government’s £500 billion bailout plan is primarily designed not to keep banks lending to small firms and to homebuyers but to prevent an unimaginable financial calamity.

Banks provide the very foundations and plumbing of the entire economy. A failure of confidence in them could still bring the entire capitalist edifice tumbling down.

It suits ministers, however, to maintain the bogus claim that the bailout is about sustaining bank lending. True, that would be a helpful side-effect, but is not the main purpose. Indeed, a gentle and gradual reduction in the indebtedness of individuals and companies is still needed.

At the risk of hyperbole, we should not be worrying about whether this is going to be a thin Christmas for retailers (it is), but whether Britain and the West are about to plunge into a years-long economic Dark Age – complete with mass unemployment and social unrest.

Taxpayers are already facing a loss of almost £10 billion on their investment in Royal Bank of Scotland, Lloyds TSB and HBOS even before the Government hands over a penny. That is what their languishing share prices are saying.

The recession has barely begun and the banks are on their knees. Scores of billions of pounds of bad debts are yet to come, as companies and individuals default on loans.

When in early October officials mapped out the bailout with banks, they insisted that those banks stress-tested their balance sheets for a serious downturn. In the six weeks since then, the outlook has darkened swiftly. The worst-case scenario imaginable then may well be looking like a central-case scenario now.

Richard Pym, executive chairman of Bradford & Bingley, the nationalised bank, told MPs this week that the bank had already stress-tested its mortgage book to see how it would cope with a 25 per cent drop in house prices (answer: £600-800 million of losses). But he no longer regarded this as sufficient and was busy putting much larger house price falls into his equations.

The fattened-up capital cushions of the banks will be enough for a while, but banks remain colossolly levered. It wouldn’t take much of a deterioration in their assets to wipe out all the fresh capital raised. The banks may well have to come back to taxpayers for more. They will be given it, too, albeit at the price of total nationalisation.

One third of Icelanders now want to emigrate, things have got so bad, a recent survey found. The proportion of Britons with similar wanderlust may not be so different before this economic agony passes.
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Old 12-03-2008, 07:10 PM   #8
Celtic_Man
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Default Re: Icelanders storm bank.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Humble Janitor View Post
We need to storm the banks here in the US as well.

Hold the international banker cabal responsible for the destruction of the world at the hands of their carelessness.
Great idea but Americans have lost their will to save their country. They won't even do a protest against outsourcing, illegal immigration and anything for that matter while our country loses its sovereignty.
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