The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. – Benjamin Franklin
Aug 23, 2014
Mag. 6.6 Valparaiso, Chile and Mag. 5.3 Hofn, Iceland….
Website: sott.net
Source credit: USA Today, USGS
Map credit: USGS
Photography credit: belongs to their respective owner(s) and not to me..
Article Links:
http://www.sott.net/article/284340-6-…
http://www.sott.net/article/284341-US…
Original website, article link: USATODAY
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/wo…
– Iceland’s Bardarbunga Volcano Begins To Erupt, Ash Cloud Imminent After Aviation Warning Raised To “Red” (ZeroHedge, Aug 23, 2014):
In April 2010, it was Iceland’s unpronouncable Eyjafjallajokull volcano which erupted and forced more than 100,000 flights to be canceled on concern glass-like particles formed from lava could melt in aircraft engines and clog turbines.
A year later, in May 2011, ash from Iceland’s Grimsvotn volcano forced flight cancellations in Scotland, northern England and Germany leading to further lower “GDP adjustments” across Europe which back then was in desperate need of a scapegoat for its then double-dip recession.
So in what may be good news for Europe once again, now teetering on the edge of a triple-dip recession (in the confines of Europe’s worst depression ever), moments ago Iceland’s meteorological service reported that the island’s Bardarbunga volcano, having been closely observed by volcano-watchers for the past month due to heightened seismic activity, has begun to erupt which means in addition to Russia’s trade war, Europe now has another volcanic eruption to blame its latest GDP contraction on. As the local Met office summarizes, a “small” eruption of lava has occurred to the northeast of the volcano leading the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service to declare that “all air traffic is now prohibited in a large radius around the volcano.”
…
– Volcanic eruption begins under Iceland’s (and Europe’s) largest glacier (Ice Age Now, Aug 23, 2014):
Dyngjujokull eruption begins – It’s all subglacial for now
Iceland’s Dyngjujokull volcano began erupting today, prompting the country to raise its aviation alert level to red, the country’s Meteorological Office said. However, the eruption is still just considered a minor event at this point
Dyngjujokull volcano is not far from Bárðarbunga, which gave us the largest eruption of the Holocene (this era).
An alert level of red — the highest level — indicates the threat of “significant emission of ash into the atmosphere.” Meanwhile, the National Commissioner of the Icelandic Police has raised the alert phase to emergency phase.
Seismic data indicates that hot magma is melting the ice beneath the Dyngjujokull icecap on the Vatnajokull glacier, said Met Office vulcanologist Melissa Pfeffer.
Read moreVolcanic eruption begins under Iceland’s (and Europe’s) largest glacier
– Iceland – Tourists and workers evacuated north of rumbling volcano (Ice Age Now, Aug 20, 2014):
Some 3,000 small earthquakes in Iceland since Saturday
have raised concerns that the country’s largest volcano system, Bardarbunga, located under Iceland’s largest glacier, Vatnajokull, could erupt and cause travel chaos across Europe.
Meteorologist Einar Einarsson said earthquakes were happening practically every minute.
– Intense earthquake swarm started at Bárðarbunga volcano, Iceland (The Watchers, Aug 18, 2014):
Icelandic Met Office (IMO) is reporting a sharp increase in seismic activity by the subglacial stratovolcano Bárðarbunga in NW Vatnajökull ice cap?. A seismic swarm has been ongoing since 03:00 UTC on August 16, 2014, and near continuous earthquakes have been occurring since then.
This is the most intense earthquake swarm in this area for years, according to IMO. The last confirmed eruption of this volcano took place on June 18, 1910 (VEI 2), while the largest known eruption (VEI 6) took place in February 1477. In historic times there have been large eruptions of this volcano every 250 – 600 years.
…
Flashback:
– Iceland’s Jailed Bankers ‘A Model’ For Dealing With ‘Financial Terrorists’
– Iceland Cancels EU Membership Bid
– The Secret Sauce Of Iceland’s Success Story: Debt Liquidation?
– How Iceland Overthrew The Banks: The Only 3 Minutes Of Any Worth From Davos (Video)
– Impossible In America: ‘Executives At Collapsed Iceland Bank Jailed For Fraud’ (Reuters)
– Iceland’s Economy Now Growing Faster Than The U.S. And EU After Arresting The Banksters
– Here Is What Happens If You Do Not Bail Out The Banksters And Avoid Getting Raped By The IMF
If all of this sounds also for you almost too good to be true …
… then you should read this article:
– We’ve Been Lied To About Iceland’s ‘Recovery’:
It turns out, most of these claims are dead wrong.
…
Despite being so widely reported by the mainstream financial media, Iceland is not a story of model economic recovery. It’s a story of how to fool people. And for now, it’s working.
– Let Banks Fail Is Iceland Mantra as 2% Joblessness in Sight (Bloomberg, Jan 27, 2014):
Iceland let its banks fail in 2008 because they proved too big to save.
Now, the island is finding crisis-management decisions made half a decade ago have put it on a trajectory that’s turned 2 percent unemployment into a realistic goal.
While the euro area grapples with record joblessness, led by more than 25 percent in Greece and Spain, only about 4 percent of Iceland’s labor force is without work. Prime MinisterSigmundur D. Gunnlaugsson says even that’s too high.
– Iceland’s jailed bankers ‘a model’ for dealing with ‘financial terrorists’ (RT, Dec 14, 2013:
By jailing four top officers of Iceland’s failed Kaupthing Bank, the country showed the world the right way to deal with the people largely responsible for the 2008 financial crisis, said Charlie McGrath, founder of news website, Wide Awake News.
The US and other nations must take it as a model for the next time the too-big- to-fail corporations screw things up and ask for a bailout with taxpayers’ money, he added.
RT: The jail terms are the biggest penalty for such crimes in Iceland’s history. What is the significance of the precedent?
Read moreIceland’s Jailed Bankers ‘A Model’ For Dealing With ‘Financial Terrorists’
– Cyprus-Style Wealth Confiscation Is Now Starting To Happen All Over The Globe (Economic Collapse, Sep 24, 2013):
Now that “bail-ins” have become accepted practice all over the planet, no bank account and no pension fund will ever be 100% safe again. In fact, Cyprus-style wealth confiscation is already starting to happen all around the world. As you will read about below, private pension funds were just raided by the government in Poland, and a “bail-in” is being organized for one of the largest banks in Italy. Unfortunately, this is just the beginning. The precedent that was set in Cyprus is being used as a template for establishing bail-in procedures in New Zealand, Canada and all over Europe. It is only a matter of time before we see this exact same type of thing happen in the United States as well. From now on, anyone that keeps a large amount of money in any single bank account or retirement fund is being incredibly foolish.
Let’s take a look at a few of the examples of how Cyprus-style wealth confiscation is now moving forward all over the globe:
Read moreCyprus-Style Wealth Confiscation Is Now Starting To Happen All Over The Globe
– Wow. This story about Iceland’s “recovery” is a complete lie. (Sovereign Man, July 22, 2013):
July 22, 2013
Reykjavik, IcelandWithout doubt, Iceland was the canary in the coalmine for the sovereign debt crisis that is unfolding across the world right now.
It was the first place to go bust, crumbling under the weight of a credit-fueled boom that brought down most of the country’s banking sector and sent the currency into freefall.
– BREAKING NEWS: Iceland freezes out Citizen Snowden Bill, ‘no connection’ says Finance Minister (21st Century Wire, July 5, 2013)
Before:
– BREAKING NEWS: Iceland Congress puts forward bill to grant Snowden citizenship (21st Century Wire, July 4, 2013)
In other news:
– Snowden remains a headache for Putin (CNN, July 4, 2013)
The secret sauce: NO BANKSTER BAILOUT!
– How Iceland Overthrew The Banks: The Only 3 Minutes Of Any Worth From Davos (Video)
– Impossible In America: ‘Executives At Collapsed Iceland Bank Jailed For Fraud’ (Reuters)
– Iceland’s Economy Now Growing Faster Than The U.S. And EU After Arresting The Banksters
– Here Is What Happens If You Do Not Bail Out The Banksters And Avoid Getting Raped By The IMF
– Two Thirds Of Icelanders Oppose EU Membership
– A Lesson For Europe: Why Iceland Won’t Join The Euro (Video)
Icelanders learned their lession …
– Iceland Cancels EU Membership Bid
… maybe also observing Greenland:
– Why is Greenland so rich these days? It said goodbye to the EU!
– The Secret Sauce Of Iceland’s Success Story: Debt Liquidation? (ZeroHedge, June 24, 2013):
That Iceland is so far the only success story in the continent of Europe, which continues sliding into an ever deeper depressionary black hole, as a result of the complete destruction of its financial sector and its subsequent rise from the ashes, is by known to most. What is still not exactly clear is what conditions have allowed success and growth to flourish in a barren wasteland where 60% youth unemployment is increasingly the norm, and where economic “outperformance” is measured in shades of red. As it turns out, perhaps the biggest jolt to Icelandic economic growth is what we said was the correct prescription for resolving not only the US but global growth malaise that struck in 2008: debt liquidation. Of course, instead the powers that be opted for merely masking unsustainable debt with more debt in the hope of preserving the global financial equity tranche, where some $50 trillion, or two-thirds of total, in US household wealth is concentrated, by drowning out hundreds of trillions in global debt through controlled debt inflation – which four years later still has yet to take hold, and which with every incremental dollar, yen, franc or pound printed threatens to spillover into uncontrolled hyperinflation, i.e., loss of fiath.
Read moreThe Secret Sauce Of Iceland’s Success Story: Debt Liquidation?
– Iceland cancels EU membership bid (RT, June 25, 2013):
Iceland’s foreign minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson has announced the country has withdrawn its bid to join the European Union, in part unsatisfied with a deal on fishing rights within its territorial waters.
Three weeks after assuming the post, Sveinsson had indicated that Iceland’s newly elected coalition government was not keen on incorporation into the EU, a process that began in July of 2009 with the country’s official application and formal negotiations the following year.
Iceland’s suspension of the bid began in earnest when its coalition government, which saw the defeat of left-wing parties in favor of the centrist Progressive Party and the Independence Party, indicated that it would call a public referendum on the matter.
– Iceland Just Says “Nei” To Pro-European Party (ZeroHedge, April 29, 2013)
– Europe’s Fauxterity In Three Simple Charts (ZeroHedge, April 27, 2013)
Flashback:
– How Iceland Overthrew The Banks: The Only 3 Minutes Of Any Worth From Davos (Video)
– Impossible In America: ‘Executives At Collapsed Iceland Bank Jailed For Fraud’ (Reuters)
– Iceland’s Economy Now Growing Faster Than The U.S. And EU After Arresting The Banksters
– Here Is What Happens If You Do Not Bail Out The Banksters And Avoid Getting Raped By The IMF
– Two Thirds Of Icelanders Oppose EU Membership
– A Lesson For Europe: Why Iceland Won’t Join The Euro (Video)
– Cyprus Parliament President Says “No Future” Under Troika, Calls For “Iceland” Solution (ZeroHedge, March 30, 2013):
Just last week Yiannakis Omirou, Cypriot House of Representatives President, was calling for the nation to accept it is “time for responsibility” as they progressed towards a final solution; and yet today, as Cyprus’ Famagusta reports, he believes the ‘Troika-imposed’ responsibility will, “turn Cyprus into a colony of the worst possible type.” His ‘Icelandic’ solution is to “leave the Troika and EMS behind,” to ensure “national independence, national sovereignty, moral integrity, and economic independence.” He may have a point; judging from the chart below of the Troika’s poster-child Greece, relative to Iceland, things are not going so well. As Omirou ominously concludes, “if we remain bound by the Troika and the memorandum Cyprus’ destiny is already foretold and there will be no future.”
There is no other alternative but to free Cyprus from the bonds of the troika and the memorandum, House of Representatives President Yiannakis Omirou has said.
Read moreCyprus Parliament President Says ‘No Future’ Under Troika, Calls For ‘Iceland’ Solution
– How Iceland Overthrew The Banks: The Only 3 Minutes Of Any Worth From Davos (ZeroHedge, Jan 26, 2013):
“Why do we consider banks to be like holy churches?” is the rhetorical question that Iceland’s President Olafur Ragnar Grimson asks (and answers) in this truly epic three minutes of truthiness from the farce that is the World Economic Forum in Davos. Amid a week of back-slapping and self-congratulatory party-outdoing, as John Aziz notes, the Icelandic President explains why his nation is growing strongly, why unemployment is negligible, and how they moved from the world’s poster-child for banking crisis 5 years ago to a thriving nation once again. Simply put, he says, “we didn’t follow the prevailing orthodoxies of the last 30 years in the Western world.” There are lessons here for everyone – as Grimson explains the process of creative destruction that remains much needed in Western economies – though we suspect his holographic pass for next year’s Swiss fun will be reneged…
More on Iceland HERE.
– Executives at collapsed Iceland bank jailed for fraud (Reuters, Dec 29, 2012):
REYKJAVIK (Reuters) – Two former executives at an Icelandic bank which collapsed in the 2008 financial meltdown were sentenced to jail on Friday for fraud which led to a 53 million euro loss, in the first major trial of Icelandic bankers linked to the crisis.
All three of the small North Atlantic island’s top banks collapsed in quick succession in October 2008 due to big debts incurred during a rapid overseas expansion.
Read moreImpossible In America: ‘Executives At Collapsed Iceland Bank Jailed For Fraud’ (Reuters)
Flashback:
– Iceland’s Economy Now Growing Faster Than The U.S. And EU After Arresting The Banksters
– Here Is What Happens If You Do Not Bail Out The Banksters And Avoid Getting Raped By The IMF
– Two Thirds Of Icelanders Oppose EU Membership
– A Lesson For Europe: Why Iceland Won’t Join The Euro (Video)
– The Icelandic Success Story (azizonomics, Dec 8, 2012):
Emotionally, I love Iceland’s financial policies since the crash of 2008:
Iceland went after the people who caused the crisis — the bankers who created and sold the junk products — and tried to shield the general population.
But what Iceland did is not just emotionally satisfying. Iceland is recovering, while the rest of the Western world — which bailed out the bankers and left the general population to pay for the bankers’ excess — is not.
Few countries blew up more spectacularly than Iceland in the 2008 financial crisis. The local stock market plunged 90 percent; unemployment rose ninefold; inflation shot to more than 18 percent; the country’s biggest banks all failed.
This was no post-Lehman Brothers recession: It was a depression.
Since then, Iceland has turned in a pretty impressive performance. It has repaid International Monetary Fund rescue loans ahead of schedule. Growth this year will be about 2.5 percent, better than most developed economies.Unemployment has fallen by half. In February, Fitch Ratings restored the country’s investment-grade status, approvingly citing its “unorthodox crisis policy response.”
So what exactly did Iceland do?
Start watching from 03:50 into the video.
For my German speaking readers: The translation is terrible, but still better than nothing.
Related info:
–Should Iceland Join The EU? YES – 27.3% ; NO – 57.6% (ZeroHedge, Nov 12, 2012):
There was one, just one, country that escaped the bankster Mutually Assured Destruction singularity force field in 2009 and after destroying the financial overhang and starting from scratch, has become a paragon of growth in the New Global Depressionary Normal. Iceland (profiled most recently here). As such, what Iceland says is signal, and what the legacy masters of the abovementioned New Normal repeat day after day, is recurring noise. Here is the signal: when Icelanders were asked if they should join the EU, this is what they responded:
- YES – 27.3%
- NO – 57.6%
Q.E.D.
Related news:
– Here Is What Happens If You Do Not Bail Out The Banksters And Avoid Getting Raped By The IMF
– Two Thirds Of Icelanders Oppose EU Membership
– A Lesson For Europe: Why Iceland Won’t Join The Euro (Video)
– Iceland’s Economy now growing faster than the U.S. and EU after arresting corrupt bankers:
So Iceland didnt follow the rest of the world by bailing out bankers they arrested them. Now their economy is recovering faster than the EU and the United States.
Remember when the United States government told the American people that action was required to save the banks? Action in the form of Billions of dollars in debt? Yeah we remember that. Hundreds of Billions of dollars in National debt later were still chasing our tail trying to get out of debt.
At the time of the 2008 collapse Iceland was in worse shape than almost any other country in the world. Hmmmmm..
Imaging what America would be like today if we bailed out the victims of poor banking practices, and punished the bankers who were responsible instead of bailing them out.
After watching this video tell us what you think? Is Iceland off their rocker, or on to something that America should have done as well.
– IMF Says Bailouts Iceland-Style Hold Lessons in Crisis Times (Bloomberg, Aug 13, 2012):
Iceland holds some key lessons for nations trying to survive bailouts after the island’s approach to its rescue led to a “surprisingly” strong recovery, the International Monetary Fund’s mission chief to the country said.
Iceland’s commitment to its program, a decision to push losses on to bondholders instead of taxpayers and the safeguarding of a welfare system that shielded the unemployed from penury helped propel the nation from collapse toward recovery, according to the Washington-based fund.
“Iceland has made significant achievements since the crisis,” Daria V. Zakharova, IMF mission chief to the island, said in an interview. “We have a very positive outlook on growth, especially for this year and next year because it appears to us that the growth is broad based.”
Is there no water fluoridation in Iceland? LOL!
– Two thirds of Icelanders oppose EU membership. Can you blame them? (Telegraph, Mar 31, 2012):
Icelanders cast a cold eye on the EU
Leftie bloggers keep returning, as a dog returneth to its vomit, to my admiration for Iceland. The fact that I praised Iceland’s economic model is a source of constant delight to them. Yet they are starting to look badly behind the times. Iceland is growing faster than the eurozone and, because its government didn’t make the mistake of assuming private bank liabilities, its recovery is not burdened by European-level debt-to-GDP ratios. Small wonder that, according to the most recent poll, 67 per cent of Icelanders oppose EU membership.
Don’t take my word for it. Listen to The Economist. Or to The Guardian. As the main Icelandic daily Morgunblaðið puts it:
Íslendinga vera klára þjóð sem hefði herst við þá erfiðleika sem kynslóðir þeirra hefðu gengið í gegnum og þeir vissu betur en að kasta á glæ frelsi sínu.
For the tiny number of people in the world who don’t read Icelandic, here it is in English:
As they say in Reykjavík: Hver hlær núna? Who’s laughing now?
– A Lesson For Europe: Why Iceland Won’t Join The Euro (ZeroHedge, March 27, 2012):
In a brief but as usual succinct statement, MEP Daniel Hannan points out the country that decided to say no to establishment-rules and stuck to its guns by taking losses, devaluing its currency, and growing its way out of its pit of despair. The eloquent Englishman notes Iceland’s current enviable position in terms of not just growth but Debt to GDP and proffers upon his European Parliamentarian peers that perhaps, just perhaps, there is a lesson in here for all European governments (cough Greece/Portugal cough). 67% of Icelanders are now against joining the Euro.
Jumping out of the frying pan right into the (hell) fire.
Before:
– Icelandic Anger Bringing Record Debt Relief in Best Crisis Recovery Story
– Iceland: Economy Exits Recession
See also:
– Why is Greenland so rich these days? It said goodbye to the EU!
– Iceland Will Adopt Euro or Other Currency, Prime Minister Says (Bloomberg, Mar 10, 2012):
Iceland will either adopt the euro after joining the European Union or drop the krona and unilaterally adopt another currency as “the situation can’t remain unchanged,” said Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir.
“The choice is between surrendering the sovereignty of Iceland in monetary policy by unilaterally adopting the currency of another country or become a member of the EU,” Sigurdardottir said in a speech delivered at a Social Democrat Alliance party convention today in Reykjavik, the capital. EU membership will allow Iceland to “cooperate with EU countries as a sovereign nation, which has a say in the decision and policy making in all fields of cooperation.”
Iceland started EU-entry talks in July 2010 and will probably vote on accession in early 2013. Of a total of 35 negotiating chapters for EU accession, Iceland has opened 11 and completed eight, the EU said in December. The primary challenges facing the talks relate to agriculture, the environment and fisheries, according to EU Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fule.
A Capacent Gallup poll last month showed that about a quarter of the island’s voters support joining the bloc, or 26.3 percent, while 56.2 percent oppose EU membership.
Iceland could fix the krona’s exchange to the euro and be sheltered (ROFL!) by the European Central Bank “as early as by the middle of next election term” in 2015, said Sigurdardottir.
