Posts tagged as:

Iceland

Taking to the streets: US vs. European edition

February 16, 2010

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Excerpt: A rant that started with an Audi ad and meandered through the requisite American distaste for conformism eventually arrived at this. Not that the tin-foil helmet crazies are in anyways more desirable than disenfranchised anarchist mobs taking over government buildings. And considering the reasons for protests: one for introducing universal health insurance and/or financial sector bailouts, the other against belt-tightening in wages and benefits, I’m not entirely sure the comparison can really be considered parallel. The majority of us hit by economic hardships just want to put our heads down and get on with the whole thing, kind of like, well, Ireland. But…

What’s at stake with the Icesave bill?

January 20, 2010

in Machiavellian Machinations

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Excerpt:

Image via Wikipedia

[/caption] There’s been a lot of reporting from the British and the international press on Iceland’s rejection of the Icesave bill. The bill outlined basic compensation scheme from the Icelandic to the British and Dutch governments that repays the money lost from the collapsed Icesave. Most of the discussion so far has focused on Iceland’s increasing isolation from the international community, dimmed prospects on its EU membership as a result of not playing ball, the potential for further debt downgrades by credit agencies, etc. But questions linger. Questions like, why did the Icelandic reject the bill, knowing…

Shifting fortunes: “The Zeitgeist has changed”

January 16, 2010

in Schadenfreude

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Excerpt: Indeed it has. Politically, and economically. Over the past three decades, states that privatized alongside the Chicago school doctrine, and doggedly pursued market solutions, particularly ones in the west, such as the US, UK, and Iceland, have experienced the most violent internal convulsions. That’s no news. But countries that resisted the so-called Anglo-Saxon model are now smug and ready to regulate. Within the EU, this means one thing: [T]he French and the Germans are in the ascendancy in Europe, while the British influence is fading. [The British] fear France and Germany are out for revenge, leading to a flood of new Europe-wide regulation aimed at…

The recession as experienced by the Irish

January 7, 2010

in Schadenfreude

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Excerpt:

Image via Wikipedia

[/caption] Like other pockets of Europe, Ireland experienced phenomenal growth in the 2000s. Like Iceland for example, both relatively poor before major economic changes took place, soared to unimaginable heights during the boom, and now shot down to earth and licking their wounds. But are the Irish more mentally equipped to deal with the recession, given their not-so-distant memories of poverty and hardship? We have a long and proud history of poverty, I don’t know if that helps. When I was growing up, you never asked another Irish person what they did for a living, and you never…

Who is worse off than you?

March 5, 2009

in Culture, Society, & Economy

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Excerpt: Growing up, whenever I screwed up in a test or assignment in school and had to face my mom, I would always preface my failure by citing more spectacular blow-ups by my classmates. The habit never escaped me. Now instead of placating my parents, I use it as a self-administered sedative whenever things get bad. By reminding myself that it could be worse. It’s easy to fall into a depressing spiral these days. There’s little voyeuristic pleasure in watching your economy on a high speed race heading for the cliff, especially when your savings and investments are wrapped in the vehicle. But…