Fighting Over Finance
Filed under: Anglophilia > Politik
As we mentioned on Wednesday, things were looking pretty bad for Iceland when the U.K. threatened to sue the country over lost deposits held by 300,000 Brits in Icelandic banks.
Well, today, British treasury officials started to fly out to Reykjavik for emergency discussions now that U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown has declared diplomatic war on Iceland.
It seems that the collapse of three Icelandic banks is even greater than the $1 billion known to be at risk.
So, as of yesterday, Brown has launched an attack against Iceland for their 'illegal' refusal to pay back the billions it owes to British investors after their banks failed.
Brown used "anti-terrorism powers to freeze Icelandic assets as fears grew that vast sums of British cash could be lost."
Many private companies, charities, town halls, and more have lost about $27 billion in Iceland.
Many are fearing that Iceland is now pretty much a bankrupt state and owes their investors over $47 billion.
Brown said, "We are freezing the assets of Icelandic companies in the UK where we can. We will take further action against Icelandic authorities wherever necessary to recover the money. I don't apologise for it. This is a very unusual situation, where a country has effectively defaulted."
As for Iceland, its prime minister, Geir Haarde said he was disappointed with the lack of assistance he's received from Western countries.
Uhmm, hello! No one wants to be friends with a country that takes your money and won't return it. No one except for crazy Russia, which has even offered Iceland a $5 billion loan.
With times as bad as they are, we need to be careful where we put our money.
[Image via WENN.]
i'm outta here.
happy thanksgiving letty.
off to get my government cheese according to JANE.
yummy stuff.
i'll stash some of your $$$$ P
GO TO CNN AND WATCH THE TOP RIGHT VIDEO ON BLACK REPUBLICANS!!!! GOOD VID!
LATER PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!
are the loans and debts to British banks and the British Government? If so it's not illegal…its a stoploss. Kinda like when you're so far in debt with the Dept. Of Education puts an offest on your tax refunds…or when your wages get garnished cause you don't wanna pay your baby mama.
Govt cheese is yummy it makes you not have to poop…
have a good weekend mama
helvitis!!!!
Umm. Hello! It turns out that Iceland isn't even really a country.
Re: mama of 2 – Go cook some diner so your man doesn't know you were on the pc all day Loser!
wow…this is sum pretty intense $hi*…really scary…
Re: jú!!!SEMICOLON!!!lí!!!SEMICOLON! –
you dont say…..
tough tímar hjá íslandi
brown is going to lose-stupid, arrogant brits-thought they were smarter than everybody-good on iceland
It is truly amazing how Britain STILL feels it has the right to fuck with other countries. Boo hoo. You lost some money. The country is going BANKRUPT. Geez. Get your lords and ladies and dukes and duchesses to pay. Britain owes enormous debts to half the world for the shit they've been pulling for the past what, thousand years? Hey, we pretty much bailed them out during World War II. How about we collect those debts now too?
Well you know Yoko Ono gave us 50.000 dollars yesterday:)
1. Iceland is not bankrupt! - nor will it be!
2. Iceland is one of the wealthiest country in the world
3. Prime Minister Brown is loosing following in the Uk and is the most desperate politician in the world at the moment
4. Brown said on BBC news this morning that he had frozen all of the icelandic government asset in the UK - this is a lie and has not or will not happen!
5. Financial Minister Darling and Brown are saying one thing to officials in Iceland and then courting the press in the UK - with foolish statements
6. Brown is using terrorist laws to freeze and bank assets in the Uk
7. Because of the action of the british government a bank who was thought to be able to withstand the financial crises went down and Icelandic pension funds lost billions..
8. There are british lawyers who think the Icelandic government can legally demand compensations because of their idiotic statements and actions.
9. The assets of the icelandic banks in the UK will most likely cover the savings of the british people …
10. The icelandic banks are privately held - and have therefore nothing to do with the government but the government have repeatedly issued statements that they will honor their obligations.
Re: queenliz02 –
Yes, but these are people who took out SAVINGS accounts trying to save money. They didn't throw it into the risky stock market like they could've and gambled it away. Iceland keeping the money from these savings accounts is a crime.
OI ICELAND! GVE US OUR FUCKING MONEY BACK YOU FUCKING BASTARDS.
I still think Iceland "Rocks it!… I have a good friend from there… Cool azz peeps and culture people.
Re: vengance – THEY AREB NOT LOANS, THE MONEY BELONGS TO SEVERAL BRITISH LOCAL AUTHORITIES, IT'S BASICALLY BRITISH TAX PAYERS MONEY AND WE WANT IT BACK.
Re: queenliz02 – HOW ARE WE FUCKING WITH OTHERS, IT IS OUR FUCKING MONEY, WE THE TAXPAYERS PAYED THIS MONEY TO OUR LOCAL AUTHORITIES AND THEY INVESTED IN ICELANDIC BANKS, WHY THE FUCK SHOULD WE FORGET ABOUT MONEY THAT BELONGS TO US.
FUCKING STUPID AMERICANS.
If we don't have any money, how on earth can we pay it back?
Re: jonmar – thank god you guys are all so up to date with your information - icelandic banks are by now all government owned, and yes there is a real danger of iceland going bankrupt! what brown says at this moment only aggrevates the already existing problems and will not in any way contribute to a solution of the problem…
and - iceland does not take money and not give it back. due to shitty governments like currenty in the U.S. the financial markets are basically imploding, tearing down an innocent small country, located way off main land. if no one offers to help - then yes, why not the russians?
Re: kristborg – BUT THE BANKS ARE LETTING ICELANDIC PPL TAKE THEIR MONEY OUT OF THE BANKS BUT IT IS REFUSING THE LET US BRITS TAKE OUR MONEY OUT.
Re: Uker – Look here I was on your side till you made your stupid comment about stupid Americans how do you know if QueenLiz is a American?? Just because this site is American doesn't mean everyone on here is a stupid American so shut the fuck up b4 I kick your ass just like we did in 1776 bitch!
Re: elizard – LOL YOU WANNA KICK MY ASS OVER THE INTERNET LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL
Re: sproutie – iceland is not just taking theyr money, its taking ours too, i live in iceland and even our saving accounts arent save, theyr taking our saving money too, as of today we cant use our credit cards or send money out of the country.
Food prices went up double, right now broke is the way to be, coz at least u dont have but u dont lose it!
declaring a financial war isnt gonna help anything, uk has to remember we r suffering too.
Re: elizard – Andy? If so or if not, SHUT THE FUCK UP!
They cant pay, what they dont have for f sake.. The Icelandic prime minister has said time and again that they will make good on the money, but they need time…
I think the Brits should give Iceland a chance to collect itself. Way to be diplomatic. Guess solidarity is out the window.
Good luck Island
…i've said it b4 (not here though)… we need to get our economy straight fast, ’cause the longer we slide down that slope the more countries we take with us - ones that cant get back up and climb it like we can…
Re: sweetpiece – Who the fuck is Andy?
Re: Cecilie –
the brits just did a bailout of their own last week…it may not be that they dont want to wait for iceland, but that they cant…
we've been so tied up in our crisis here, we have not really seen the efect its having world wide…
my fave - opec has an emergency meeting to discuss the sudden drop in the price per barrell of oil. where was the 'emergency meeting' as the price per barrel rocketed to new highs…guess some shiek will have to buy 2 new bentleys instead of 3.
Re: sweetpiece – Make me shut up you fucking rodent!
Re: elizard – I pee on you!
I think this is very hurtful, I'm from Iceland and we are suffering, I would have thought the British would've been more supportive. I love Britain! It's my second home, I love the people who I always thought were the nicest people on earth that's why It's so hurtful. Because the Icelandic people didn't have anything to do with this and I think the comments I've heard from the British people are very mean, wearing t shirts that say Death to Iceland, I hate Iceland and such, you should have t shirt that say death to Icelandic government or Icelandic Banks.
England is just mad because Reykjavik is so much cooler than London.
PEREZ! You need to stick with what you know - GOSSIP!!!!!
Utter nonsense you say about Iceland… jeese!
One loyal reader from Iceland.
Hmmm….
I'm from Iceland and I'll say this. GET OVER IT! It's just MONEY!
Sadly money is "real" and we "need" it. But today you woke up alive, (hopefully ->) you have both your arms and legs, you're a healthy human being and I can go on and on.
The reality of this situation in one word SUCKS but at the end of the day… will this kill us? NO!
I think it's so sad that people are so hung up on this issue. Yeah of course it sucks having to cut down on your expenses and live a more simpler life but it will help you appreciate things better I think.
The average person in Ethiopia lives on LESS than $2 a DAY! Yet they survive, BARELY but they do. So I think that we should open our eyes a bit and realize that just because we can't eat out every day, buy expensive cars, expensive clothes etc is NOT the end of the world.
The world has seen depression before. Some have said that this is worse than the Great Depression but people survived. We're more advanced now so we'll bounce back sooner I think.
What I don't get is why everyone is jumping down each others throats. We're ALL in the same messy situation. Not just Icelandic people, a lot of other nations.
There was an economic boom, people started living WAY beyond their means and now it's come back to haunt us.
It's just a lesson to be learned … and at the end of the day, money doesn't matter.
Money doesn't make me happy. In fact I pretty much have zero money in the bank, I've lost money on stock that I had in one of the banks that got taken over by the government and then turned over to the financial supervisory authority but does that change me as a person? No.
Has it changed my consumer behavior? Yes and that's not really a bad thing.
I take food with me to school instead of buying it and I don't got to the movies anymore … is that a major dramatic loss? No not really … the food I take with me is generally better and healthier than stuff I can buy for ridiculous amounts of money and as for movies… well I have tons of DVD's I can watch and if all else fails… I have about 20 books sitting on my bookshelf that I haven't had time to read.
Losing money and having less money isn't the end of the world. Things will be a bit different over the next few years but don't worry… you'll be able to get back to your excessive spending eventually. That is, if you still want to!
I honestly think the world has become way too obsessed with money and HAVING IT ALL. But at the end of the day none of it makes you happy. Think about it, does it REALLY make you happy? And if it does, then I feel sorry for you. Life has got to be pretty shitty (excuse my language) and sad if you can only find happiness in material things and money.
If you're a healthy human being, if you have food on your table (even if it's 2 min noodles or oatmeal) and you have friends and family that can make you laugh. Then that's all you need.
There's a big difference between NEED and WANT. So … just try to forget about this, honestly, there is NOTHING WE can do about it.
It's a situation the WORLD is in, governments are trying their best to fix whatever they can, some with better results than others, but worrying, arguing etc will do nothing except make YOU unhappy and miserable.
Personally I like being happy and joyful, it's a choice.
Don't let money rule your world and have such great effect on how you live your life.
As for you Perez… have some love for Iceland … after all … it is the country that gave the world the musical geniuses and the out of this world musical experience that is Sigur Rós!
And I'm freakin addicted to your page… so keep it up! :p
P.s. sorry I had to break it up into 3 different comments… but yeah.. I have a lot to say! :p
Hi everyone, this is my first post, so here goes….. I'm a Brit, I moved to LA a year ago to study and I just lost everything through the collapse of the Icelandic banks. A bit of background info - my family were very poor, I had to leave school at 17 and start working, I worked as a secretary all day, then I'd walk down to a pizza restaurant and waitress all night, 5 days a week then I'd copy type at the weekends. I worked my guts off and eventually saved enough to put a tiny deposit down and buy a small flat which I renovated and sold a year later for a bit of profit, with that money I invested in another property and so on for about 8 years, taking chances left, right and centre, I worked myself to be the bone to make ends meet and eventually I had a very successful business. So after 10 years I decided to cash my properties in and move to LA to study at drama school. I put all the money I'd made into a savings account (offshore for tax reasons) with one of the Icelandic banks Kaupthing, Singer Friedlander. The interest I earnt from my savings was transferred into $ and over to the US every month. I took out a huge mortgage with a very high interest rate (cause I didn't have good credit) and started taking classes full time and my life has been amazing, I love being in America, I love LA and everyone has been so nice to me. THIS COMMENT IS CONTINUED CAUSE I RAN OUT OF SPACE
I'm not quite the Meryl Streep that I aspire to be but I'm working bloody hard and I've done some unpaid independant films and I've lost about 10IBs in weight so I'm well on my way. BUT…….Monday of this week I found out about the problems with Iceland, I called my bank and did a transfer out of my account. On Wednesday night when I checked the news in London I found out the bank had gone under and my transfer was never done. I have lost everything. I kept all my savings with that one bank (stupid I know but when I opened the account a year there were no signs of any problems in the market). I cannot legally work here. I have to come up with $7,000 a month to cover my mortgage, health insurance, bills, property tax and household insurance. When these things happen you feel like you want to kill yourself (of course in true Hollywood style I was planning to drive myself off Mulholland Drive), then I got an email from my Aunt in Ireland saying that my cousin had just been diagnosed with cancer and only has weeks to live (she has 3 young kids) and that puts everything into prospective. So for now my dreams are over, I'll probably end up swinging around a pole at Crazy Girls. THIS MESSAGE IS CONTINUED CAUSE I RAN OUT OF SPACE
Sorry to leave such a depressing comment, I'm not really sure why I'm even doing this, to be honest I'd tell a lamp post if it would listen, I confessed all to a really freaked out check out girl at Ralphs earlier, it seems to be the most cathartic thing to do. Well it's onwards and upwards, please all of you be careful out there, you never think that something like this is gonna happen to you. Everyone in the UK is taking their money out of all of the banks, it's a frenzy, the British government guarantees $100,000 of savings if a bank goes under but if that starts to happen there's no way they'd be able to pay everyone back. In the past week the number of people buying household safes has risen by 5000% and people are committing suicide. It's terrible. One of the account holders at the bank in the Isle Of Man where I held my account has set up a website. THIS MESSAGE IS CONTINUED CAUSE I RAN OUT OF SPACE
Brown, as usual, is being a plank.Right now the world needs to support each other not issue absurd threats. Diplomacy always wins in the end. His government encourages all those Iceland investments anyway. What a arse he is. No wonder UK public have NO Confidence in him at all.
If this were the united states would britain react the same??? make "bomb Iceland" (or bomb the usa) t-shirts ??? use terrorist laws against them, no i don't think so.. very good of you to kick a man while he is lying down.
Iceland really is a country of 320.000 ppl in total, 17 of your ppl messed up in that banking industry but we never said we weren't gonna pay up altho it might not be right away. It's not only the brits that went badly out of this, half of our own lost their savings and pretty much all they had. It's unfair seeing ppl all over the world talk about and JUDGE things they dont have any knowledge of, it's just sad. Geir Haarde is looking into suing UK for those terrorist actions btw, so enjoy!!
Perez, as much as I love your website and realise that you can't always be on top of everything that is going on, you most certainly have got this story so wrong it's unbelievable!
You guys ( the Americans) were fine with us Icelanders when you had your army base over here, then it was fine to use us! Now you wont even help us! Same goes with the Brits! And you dare to criticise us for getting help from the Russians!!!
I am so sad to see what this has come to! We are a nation of rougly 300.000 people and every single citizen here is being affected by this! Because of some adventurous greedy bankers ( 20-30 of them) that owned the banks, yes they owned them not the nation, we have now lost everything!!! We can't import food or bare nesscecities because there is no foreign currency left in the country!! It didn't have to come to this but with the remarks of Mr. Gordon Brown our last bank, that before those remarks was doing ok, went under! And by using anti-terrorist laws on us, the friendly nation in the middle of nowhere that has no army, can you imagine who they will use that law on next!!!
The first thing our Prime Minister said was that we would do everything in our power to make sure the Brits and the Dutch would get their savings back but that was never reported in the UK, the people there were told that we were not going to pay their money back, what a lie!!! The UK government was told several times that we would do our best to resolve this situation and they were fine with that but then turn around and make wild accusations on national tv!!! Sounds like someone is hunting for votes and is making us the scape goat!!! We have always been true friends to the USA and the UK but now neither will help us and what you have to realise is that I know a lot of people are worried about their money in Icesave and with Kaupthing but…. over here it's every single citizen that has lost everything!!! In the UK and the Netherlands it’s only a small percentage and believe me I know it hurts but here it’s everyone!!! DO you realise what that means!!!
In order for us to get things going and pay back that money abroad we have to first stabilize the situation over here!!! The government isn’t only trying to pay back the people here but also abroad!!! You blame the government, the finance supervision and us the public over here but what you need to know is that those banks were privately owned!! Also can someone explain to me why the councils in the UK demand money of people to make the councils better but then just go and invest the money?? Also why are charities investing money instead of putting it to good use??? ……and they had plenty of warnings about the fall of the Icelandic banks over the past two years!!! There are a lot of questions to be raised???
I think for now the UK government should actually talk with the Icelandic one and try to resolve the situation without using hasty measures and making wild accusations on tv that have now grounds!!!
I wonder if the Brits know that now we can actually now sue them for using the anti-terrorism laws on us!!! We can sue them and the damages ( that the english public would have to pay) could be used to pay the debts abroad!!! How sad it had to come to this!!!
Re: Brit Girl –
why didn´t you save/invest your money in the British banks? Didn't you trust them, or you just thought it was a ok to keep your money in a tax haven?
Re: Uker –
blame Brown, the banks did just fine, but with his rash reactions to fins a scape goat (to save his crumbling carrier) he forced the banks to close, and therefor the people to have their assets frozen.
we also have proof that Brown says one thing to authorities in Iceland, and then others to the Brithish public. British reporters here in Iceland have now seen the damage that Brown has done to, both Icelanders and British investors to save his carrier
Perez, dear you're funny and frivolous. don't talk about politics you know nothing of.
Iceland is not bankrupt. fact.
indeed it is a horrible thing to say about a country.
You cannot blame a whole country for what is happening. Brown is a self obsessed, nuisance who is doing everything to cover up the economic crisis Britain is going through at the moment.
I find it strange that so much of Britain would invest in Icelandic banks. What does that say about British banks?
People need to read more about this before they discuss it like this and become Iceland discriminatory. that's all I'm saying.
and I finding it excessive and disgusting to kick down a country when it is having problems.
helvítis bretar. ég er til í að skjóta þennan Gordon Brown. who's with me?
Hallo Hallo people can you not open your mind a little and think!!
Do you honestly think it´s fair for a whole nation to be bankrubed because 4-5 stupit investors who have an icelandic backround but don´t even live here took some bad disisions (and this happend because of the state on the financials ALL around the world!!)?!?! NO COUNTRY WOULD DO THAT!!!
It´s horrible to see that no one s offering to help, USA who called us great friends aswell as britain and the nordic countries -BULLSHIT!!
This will never be forgotten and we have one of the most educated and smart people in the world here so we´r gonna crawl up from this mess in notime and then we will choose some new friends hehe
It´s sad to see what greed as done to the world, and Perez…you were my fav blogger, i´m so dissapointed you would not get more info on this subject and just post this…Things like that (ignorence) really ruin us.
I've read this story three times (yes, I'm a victim of American news coverage; I have to hear about it for the first time on a gossip site. Perez is covering harder news than CNN. That's actually kind of funny…) and I believe it says that because some private British investors may have lost money in Icelandic banks, Brown has frozen the assets of other Icelandic companies in Britain? I can't believe that's legal under anyone's law and I hope the international community goes after the UK for it. That's like Timmy getting his big brother in to beat up Jimmy and get his money back because Timmy and Jimmy bet on the playoffs and Jimmy won.
Re: yummyhummus –
ég skal hjálpa þér:)
I'm a money-loosing Icelander and believe I have a say…
Ok, queen liz: thank you for being intelligent; uker: you need to say fuck less.
Iceland is going through a financial meltdown, caused by about 20-30 risk-taking idiots who wont face their responsibility and it's all coming down on the average Icelandic worker and other people who trusted the Icelandic banks. Icelandic investors and government have made bad choices through the past years and refused to see the blinking red lights telling them to think again. This has lead to an economical brake down.
One question for you guys:
Do we think all Americans are oil-thirsty war waging loonatics because of the war in Iraq?
No. We don't. Because we know better than to think that a nation of individuals is responsible for the acts of a few powerful hot shots who don't care about anyone but themselves.
Are you, uker, seriously going to wage war on the hard working Icelandic people for the crimes of the same kind of "hot-shots"?
Of course you have the right to your money and I sincerely hope you get it all back. You have been fooled like the rest of us. Only don't take your anger out on average normal people, who had nothing to do with this.
And don't call us bastards. Believe me…our situation is far worse than yours.