First – This person claims to speak on behalf of a group of people, using “We” instead of “I”. But who is “We”? There is no clue given. This seems to be a matter of self-importance. I am not an Icelander and definitely don’t want to be included in this “We”.

Second – Those generalizations about all Icelanders being equally responsible is just ridiculous. E.g., the younger generation and children, who will have to bear the burden of Icesave, can’t be held responsible in a moral sense for something, they could not influence. Those generalizations leave no room for more sophisticated reasoning. This “We”-against-”You” phraseology is the breeding ground for xenophobia and racism.

Third – The problems of the Icelandic banks were on the table long before the crash – publicly available and for everybody visible, who cared. Nobody had been forced to deposit into Icesave and Kaupthingedge accounts. People, who nevertheless did so, should ask themselves, why. I did myself deposit money into Kaupthingedge, it was partly my own mistake. I have my reservations against Icelandic bankers, who acted fraudulent and Icelandic politicians, who did not stop them. But I do NOT blame the average Icelander.

Forth – The passage about destroyed lives and bankrupted charities “that once provided relief for the poor, the indigent, and the disabled” is just plain gallery talk. It is very sad, that charities and other entities deposited money into obviously unsound and precarious banks. It should be time to ask, who was responsible at these institutions for investment decisions and why they just did not act more prudent.

Fifth – I am personally getting sick of those commentators, who pop up everytime, the name Icesave is somehow involved in an article or a blog post, not at all caring about the actual subject, and repeat their ever recurring tirades, fuelled by some grudge against Icelanders acquired in the past. I don’t doubt, that there has been arrogant behaviour of some Icelanders in the past but this does not give a right to generalize.

And it’s as much as I find it ridiculous to be justifying myself to someone I don’t even know, I will say that, yes, I bought one pair of leather boots in Italy. It is the first pair of winter boots I have bought in several years.

And on that note, I think that’s enough worms out of one can. Thanks to all who participated.

History knows other stories. Negotiations that granted not only short term relief to debtors but also reduction of the debt burden. So creditors can actually lose money if a country defaults on its foreign debt. If someone is familiar with the Brady Plan, he knows what I mean.

Can see your point of view, but why tired of people that are saying that they didn’t participate in the “party”? I and maybe more than half of the people I know had the same lifestyle as before this boom. Our paychecks were the almost the same as before, probably on par with what people in many western European countries got for similar jobs, still what we had at the end of the month was less, because of the rising prices of housing and rent and food. For a person with around 200.000 ISK and had to rent a small apartment, about 140.000 ISK went to pay for the rent. about 30.000-40.000 was then spent on food and necessaries. What was left was maybe spent on 2 or 3 trips to the movies, paying for Internet connection and TV. Is that any different from what many people in the US and western Europe are spending their salaries on? In most cases they spend much less of their income on housing, food and other necessary items. Do not tell me that this portion of the nation was taking part in all this. Just normal people trying to survive in a really expensive and fucked up economy. It was not an option for these guys to buy an apartment, unless taking 100% mortage and pay three times as for a small apartment compared to what they would have paid few years before. Some people made the stupid decision to buy apartments and houses on foreign currencies loans and taking loan and buy without owning anything in the apartment. The real estate market here was just ridiculous, but people have to live somewhere. Real estate debts are the debts that are driving most people into bankruptcy these days. I know that a portion of the population, an rough estimation would be around 20-30% were living the good life, buying really expensive cars and too big houses and taking expensive trips and often taking stupid loans to finance it. These guys got the attention. I am sure that in every family you can find such people. That doesn’t mean that everybody was getting their share of the cake. I spent four years in the USA myself and I can say that I have never seen such unnecessary consumption and waste of resources as there. A similar portion of the people (20-30%) that I knew there had new cars on loans, nice apartments and all the latest gadgets and furnitures and ate at restaurants every day. This in my eyes was no different from what this “richer” portion of yesterdays Iceland were doing. The lifestyle was actually really American. I don’t know if you live in East LA or if you come from a wealthy people in Iceland. But this is my point of view. The part of the population that didn’t take part in this stupid party are angry and will not pay for those damn people that got us into this mess. I don’t see why we should have to, it is really simple to just move away from this mess made by other people. It is not ours to deal with. I will at least not pay for a party that I was not invited to or wanted to be in.

If lived in Iceland you gained financially from the banks – they were responsible for at least 20% of the GDP directly and much more indirectly. Their employees paid taxes which provided for you welfare system and services. Wages from these banks were spent in shops which provided jobs and more taxes for the government. If you sold your house its value will have been boosted by the demand from bank workers. The infrastructure (tourist industry, power, roads) all benefited by the economic wealth and borrowing possible with a strong currency manipulated by the banks. If you bought anything imported or travelled abroad you gained by the artificially high exchange rate provided by the banks actions.

You now have the banks tax stream and influence removed and its called a Krappa, when its actually normality.

Alda – I read that as the main point of your article and thought it strange that only my comments (8 and 22) discussed that point. I guess that shows the pent-up passion concerning Icesave! Anyway, I explained in those two comments why it is reasonable to expect that such rights be waived as part of dispute agreements; otherwise the disputes aren’t fully resolved. Icelanders may not want to waive those rights (for good reason), but it is not outrageous that the UK and Netherlands expects them to be waived as part of resolving the dispute. In particular, if Iceland insists on retaining the right, then any resultant agreement would merely serve interim purposes and the dispute wouldn’t be resolved until a binding legal judgement was eventually obtained; so such an agreement clearly wouldn’t resolve the dispute. And resolving the dispute isn’t such an outrageous goal

I am one of those foreigners closely linked to Iceland who as been writing those “I love Iceland BUT” comments and stated that most Icelanders elected and reelected DO and/or his friends, uncritically looked up to the very same oligarchs they now despise, blatantly refuted any attempt by foreigners (specially if they were Danish… for obvious historical. BTW, I am not) to question the systemic risk posed by an out-sized banking industry and the never ending acquisition spree of the Útrásar-Víkingar and clearly lived beyond their mean (not to mention extremely dangerously by refusing to see the dangers posed by taking loans in foreign currencies. I know the banks sold them aggressively, but…). I do realise that those views are generalities that are both offensive and unfair to the minority of Icelanders who didn’t fit into those generalisations, but I never the less maintain that because of all this most Icelanders bear some responsibility in the fate of their nation.

When that is said, and I hope you haven’t given up on me yet, I would like to tell you of much I AM GRATEFUL FOR YOUR BLOG (in capitals letters just in case you had given up on me . I always refused to read the Baugur owned media and stopped reading Mbl the day DO started working there. You are therefore one of my only remaining source of information regarding what is going on in a country to which I am, through my family, very close to (and have visited yearly since… and lived in from… blablabla). PLEASE KEEP INFORMING US.

Otherwise, the more I think about the Icesave agreement, the more I believe that from a moral point of view (and therfor legal ?) the only real question is : Who should reimburse the Brits and Dutch who had deposited money on UK & NL Icesave accounts ?

Should it be the Icelandic taxpayers (through the Icelandic government) whose (beware, I am going to repeat myself here…) majority elected and reelected DO. and or his friends and unquestionably did let their banking industry & business tycoons behave both recklessly and very probably dishonestly ?

Or should it be the British and Dutch taxpayers (through their respective government) whose majority elected governments that should maybe have imposed a stricter regulation on Landsbanki activities in their country ?

None of those alternatives is 100% fair, but is seems to me that the first one is the less unfair of the two as Icelandic voters & tax payers do have a larger responsibility than the Brits and Dutch one regarding the Icelandic banks debacle (as the Brits and Dutch do have a larger responsibility in the debacle/lack of control of let say Northern Rock or RBS on one hand or Fortis on the other than other countries in which those banks had subsidiaries/branch). Democracy is based on the acceptance by the minority of the consequences of the choices made by the majority. It sucks… but it is the base of democracy (and I am not implying you do not agree with that Alda).

Another principle of Democracy is that people, no matter who they are, should submit to the same laws. Owners & managers of the banks & companies whose unethical business practices are no well documented will hopefully be prosecuted (and tax payers will hopefully recoup some of the money they paid to compensate the Brit an Dutch depositors). Of all the things I wish for Iceland and Icelanders, that one as to be on the top of the list.