Comments on: Just when you think things can’t get any more corrupt … THEY DO!!

By: Jessie

Jessie — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 00:49:17 +0000

I just got around to watching the documentary on Enron, The Smartest Guys In the Room, and have to say it was quite good, and also reminded me of what happened in Iceland with the unchecked pride, arrogance, intolerance and greed. What was interesting was that it’s not just a story about numbers and complicated transactions but a reality check about human nature and morality in an unregulated financial world.

For instance, there was a study cited in the documentary from the 1940′s where a subject is to ask questions to another subject, who is actually an actor. When the actor got an answer wrong, he received an electric shock. For every additional incorrect answer, he was shocked at an increasing voltage, to the point where he could have died (of course, he wasn’t actually being electrocuted). There were several test subjects, and each would initially display concern about electrocuting the other “test subject”, but the person overseeing the study would say “just push the button”. So long as someone else was giving them the order, they felt less morally responsible for their actions. It occurred to me that, so long as others were acting with the same greed at any cost, and modeling the Icelandic market to follow unregulated free-market capitalism advocated by people like Milton Friedman, it made people feel less morally / ethically responsible for their individual actions. This is what happens when human behavior goes unchecked. A cursory glance at the last century shows us this i different forms. This is why (in my opinion) free market capitalism will never work.

By: Paul Crik

Paul Crik — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 23:43:24 +0000

A lot of people like to say that it’s just America that has this bad problem with capitalist greed, but I see it everywhere, from Iceland all the way down to the tiniest places in South America. Cold to hot. Greed and self-interest seem to me, for better or worse, to be as innately natural as they are the product of capitalist cultures. Bernard Madoff is the true new icon for greed. For 25 years he was a money-vaccuum, just sucking and sucking and emptying the bag. Iceland, though it has always been a loved land with good, hearty, talented people (a la Bjork) is not immune.

By: Elín

Elín — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:20:16 +0000

Íris Erlingsdóttir at Huffington Post …

By: Bromley86

Bromley86 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:20:35 +0000

Marc. Not that you’ll likely come away any less confused, but Bjarni’s post linked below has links to Landsbanki resolution committee reports. Anything you see by Bjarni is worth a read – he was the first one on IceNews to actually bother reading the EEA guarantee text .
http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2009/06/21/protests-in-iceland/#comment-82768

By: Bromley86

Bromley86 — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 14:02:12 +0000

Newsfrettir for some articles that don’t make it to the other sites:
http://newsfrettir.com/

And, of course, the Ministry of Puffins for some excellent detailed stuff. Unfortunaltely Physchim hasn’t updated since May, but what’s there is very good:
http://minipuffin.blogspot.com/

I haven’t read enough to form a solid opinion of Independent Icelandic News, but it’s here:
http://icelandtalks.net/

Finally, there’s your old buddy ~~Jadetree~~Paul over at the Grapevine.
http://www.grapevine.is/Home/

A neat trick is using Google news with words like Icesave (Iceland gets you too much about Kerry Katona etc.). I keep seeing good stuff by Omar something and Tasneem somebody on Bloomberg.

By: alda

alda — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 10:20:55 +0000

Marc – I don’t know of any sources except those you probably already know about – http://www.icelandreview.com, http://www.icenews.com, http://www.economicdisaster.wordpress.com. Getting information in English is a real problem for a lot of people – imagine the expats living in Iceland who were in the middle of all this and could only get snippets of information.
Perhaps other readers have info about sites that I don’t have …?

By: Marc

Marc — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 07:34:03 +0000

It’s good to hear that. Not living in Iceland + not being able to speak the language I guess it passed me by. The thing about not being sure how much the assets will fetch sounds reasonable enough to me, especially in the current environment. Do you know of any english language source where I can read more about this? Thanks a lot.

By: tom joseph aka tj3

tom joseph aka tj3 — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 22:47:34 +0000

The story of the ownership of Landsbanki is not unlike bank and finance failures here in The United States. The principle is the same. The people here who messed up our financial system anre in large part right where they started, and profiting from the mess.

There is a current movie about the 1930s American bank robber John Dillenger staring Johnny Depp. Public enemies like Dillenger never even dreamed of going off with as much gold as the Landsbanki abuse earned for its schemers.

Another movie character, the Pirate long John Silver once said “Fortune rides the shoulders of thems what scheme.

By: cargocultist

cargocultist — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 20:53:17 +0000

The central bank of Iceland does have quite a lot of information on its web site in its statistics section.

http://www.sedlabanki.is/?PageID=548

The money supply statistics are quite interesting, in and of themselves.
- cc

By: Paul H

Paul H — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 18:56:53 +0000

What a bunch of Monkey Fighters! [that's 'especially ruined for television' overdub talk]
Just got back from our 10 day visit to Iceland (awesome beyond words).
Catching up with IWR etc.
Made new friends again, really good people.
I wish there was something those of us who are an útlendingur could do.
All good Icelanders (those not responsible for this mess) are in our thoughts and prayers.