One minister resigns in Iceland

Health Minister of the Icelandic govermnet ,resigned today.
Mr. Ogmundur Jonasson will meber of parliement ,and a new health minister will be chosen.
Ogmundur is a member of the Left Green movement, and is against the Icesave contract,that was voted by parliement last summer.
He will support the goverment.

Strange sport in Iceland - video and women only

Today there was a womens sport tournement in Reykjavik.
It is some sort of a ball thing,where they use a single ball,and try to hit another player.
Since i am of the " male " kind, then the rules might be to complicated for me to understand.
But they where playing today ,and the weather does not matter .
It was cold and windy.
But they had a great time playng, and it was fun to watch.
And sometimes ,as you can see on the video , judges had to talk , about ruling .

Media war in Iceland ? David Oddssson new editor at MBL

Former Prime minister and Former Central Bank CEO, mr. David Oddson is now one of two editors of the Icelandic newspaper , Morgunbladid.
Morgunbladid ( MBL ) sacked the former editor ,becuase he did not share the view of the owners,about being against joining the EU.
MBL owners are against joining the EU,and MBL sacked today about forty employees, and many who had worked there for many years.

Þóra Kristín Ásgeirsdóttir ,reporter at MBL and also the chairman of the Reporters Union,was sacked today.
She was quated today ,saying that she does not like that ,if the are changing the MBL,to a party paper,and to protect special interests for certain people in the Independence party.

THe other newspaper is Frettabladid, and it is owned and controlled by Jon Asgveir Johannesson, owner of many companys in Iceland and Europe.
It will be interesting to see how the papers ,Frettabladid and MBL, will follow news and then you
can see who is controlling the papers.

Photo: top - Jon Asgeir Johannesson
Below - David Oddsson

Public pay the Bankers debts in Iceland - taxes raised

Icelands goverment has to save money in its budget, so it can pay up the debts after the banking crisis last year.
Taxes will be raised ,and that will raise the debt that the public has on the loans.

And still ,the special prosecutor is doing nothing.
Former justice minsister of the goverment that was in power when the banking crises started,hired the special prosecutor.

The bankers are having a great time ,they do not have to pay their big loans in the billions, but the public is getting no help from the goverment.

Still ,good news last weekend, the price in the weekly LOTTO draw,was 35 million kronas.
And now ,a single mother ,with one child, who had just lost her apartment to the banks, won 35 million kronas.

Maybe that will help the public in Iceland , LOTTO !

photos: Special Prosecutor
Icelands Goverment

No arrests in Iceland - people are getting angry

Still nobody has been arrested ,about the Bank crash last year here in Iceland.
A few years ago ,the oil companys ESSO ,OLIS and SHELL ,here in Iceland where procecuted and convicted of Oil Price fixing.
The had the oil price ,much higher than they should have.
The Oil companys ,communicated to each other and had the price high ,for many years.
They where ordered to pay fines ,but nobody was arrested.
The CEO´s of the Oil companys,where directly involved.
To much connected to the goverment and the political parties.
The CEO at SHELL,his wife was at the time - the Justice Ministero f Iceland.

Now it is similar during these banking crisis, information is out,but nothing is being done.
People are angry ,and next mont ( 1st October) a group of people ,are going to stop paying there debts.
They call it a PaymentStrike.

Now there are 14.759 unemployed in Iceland.

Gossip in Iceland now ,is that the biggest newspaper in ICeland just sacked its editor.
Sacked the Editor,because he is for joining the europian union.
But the owners ,big fishing rights owners ,do not want to join the Europian union.
And the gossip is that Former Prime minister and former CEO of the Icelands central bank,mr. David Oddson,is going to be the new editor.
The will announce tomorrow who the new editor is.

Pension fund board members prosecuted in Iceland

Two board members of one of the biggest unions in Iceland , VR, are prosecuting two board
member of pension fund of VR.
THe are prosecuting to the Financial Supervisory authoraty in Iceland.
They claim that the two board members of the pension,have invested illeagally through Kaupthing bank and Exista,wich is the main owner of Kaupthing Bank.
The board members of the pension had family ties to the bank and Exista.
Wife of one of the board members was working at kaupthing bank,and a wife of the other also work at kaupthing Bank and his daughter at Exista.
The pension fund is belived to have lost 30 billion kronas at Kaupthing and Exista.

Media in Iceland - editor sacked at MBL.is

The biggest and oldest newspaper Morgunbladid ,has sacked it chief editor.
New owners are all anty Europian ,and the editor was pro Europian union.
They who own the MBL, are mostly fishing rights owners.
And the gossip is,the there will be more people sacked,and mostly those that are for the Europian Union.

All the media in Iceland is in one way or the other controlled by big business, or political parties.
Many citizen meetings and protests ,are not followed in the Icelandic Media,because, the media owners dont like the meetings and protests.

Here is a video i took last week at a citizen meeting in Reykjavik ,and in the video on man goes on stage,and makes a hard speach at the buisness minister of Iceland who is sitting in the center on the stage.

Citizen meeting in Iceland - video

Yesterday there was a citizen meeting ,and here you can see mr. Olafur Arnarsson ,explain to tourists ,what is happening in Iceland - and in English.
People at the meeting got to ask the Icelandic buisness minister ,questions about goverment promises .
The minister did not give the answer that the public wanted.
The goverments priotity is to help companys, and at the same time ,the public is going broke.

Citizen meeting in Reykjavik tonight - september 18 2009 - video

Tonight there was a citizen meeting in Reykjavik - and buisness minister of Iceland mr.Gylfa Magnússyniwas there and answered question from people about what the goverment is going to do ,to help the public that are going bankrupt.
On this video ,you can hear mr. Olaf Arnarsson,explaining to danish tourist about what is happening and what has happened , and he is talking to them in English.
Mr. Olafur Arnarsson, was also on the panel answering questions from the public.

Bubbi Morthens musician owes 100 million in Iceland

Economics professor Michael Hudson said in DV today that Icelandic households are among the most in debt of the entire world and the situation getting worse with each month.
The average home in Iceland owes more than three times its income per month.
Nothing much can prevent people from moving to other countries.

Bubbi Morthens, a popular musician in Iceland, is one of those that used his savings to buy a property.
Now he a lost it all,and owes 100 millions kronas today ( 1 USD = 126 kronas )
His loans are now frozen at the bank ,but he pays 190 thousand kronas per month ,and that is just intrests.
Bubbi says that he will not move to other countries, but how long can he let this injustice roll over him.
Last winter he took part in the protests against the central Bank .
He came with his band - EGO - and played in front of the Central Bank early in the morning ,and it was freezing weather.
Here you can see the video i took of that protest

Bubbi can be seen and heard in the last part of this video

The Serious Fraud Office coming to Iceland

The Serious Fraud Office from UK is coming to Iceland ,to investigate the banking crunch.
Kaupthing bank , lent billions of pounds to companies linked to a key director and top shareholders
The bank was also lending money to individuals and holding companies so that they could buy shares in Kaupthing.

Still corruption information coming in Iceland

A mr. Jon Josep bjarnarsson,has been making a online program ,to see how the buisness elite is connected in Iceland through company ownership.
He had bought access to the Icelandic IRS,and could get leagal information about companys and their ownership,and stockholders.
It was very interesting to see how the bankers and buisness men ,are connected ,in many ways ,and more that one way through their companys.
But after it got public,then the CEO´s of the IRS closed for his access to the infromation.
For instance ,Jon Asgeir Johannesson,CEO of Baugur Group is connected to Hannes Smarasson,chairman of FL Group ,in 308 ways - through many different companys.

Here you can see this on a blog in Icelandic by the greatest blogger in Iceland ,Lára Hanna .
And you can now translate to english ,with translate.google.com

Students .

Students have been getting student loans ,so they can go to University.
But now it has been made public,that many students signed up for student loans,and also unemploymnet bebefits.
According to the goverment,students have taken illeagally,around 300 million kronas.

Unemployment

Unemploymnet is now 14.552 , that would be 7 % .

Me at 60 meters --- and afraid of heights !

I was a truck show in Kopavogur,in Iceland today.
And one big crane offered to lift people up to get a better view.
I accepted,and when the crane had lifted up two metres,i remembered that i do NOT like heights.
And the crane lifted us up to more than 60 metres - ( in feet _ that would be about 180 feet. )You can see that the camera is shacking ,and you can here me say " sheise " wich is german and i dont know what it means .But it was a great view,in lousy weather
What you do to get a better view to take photos and videos.

Insider information in Icelandic Banks ?

In 2007, member of the public was sold stock in a SPRON,Savings bank in Iceland ,at 55 million kronas.
And very fast the stock price went down ,fast.
The stock was sold ,and no name on who sold him the stock.
The man wanted to know who sold him the stock,after it lost value so fast.
He thought that maybe some of the managers of the bank had sold ,and use insider information.
Today Iceland supreme court ordered that he had the right to know who sold him the stock.
It turned out to be the wife of the Manager of SPRON.

He intends to seek justice and get his money back.

Unemploymnet in Iceland - September 2009

Now there are 15.233 unemployed in Iceland.
1.930.708.688 IKR was paid in august to the unemployed.
Unemployement was 8 % in july.

Nathan Lewis on the crisis in Iceland

Nathan Lewis ,Fund manager, author of Gold: the Once and Future Money ,has written a article about Iceland on Counterpunc.org.
Their he talkes about what is happening in Iceland ,and what is being done to Iceland.
Reccomend that you read his articel.

It is HERE

His own website is here

No debts on October 1. in Iceland ?

Ólafur Kristjánsson board member of Homes interest group accuses the finance minister of threatening people in financial difficulty.

Steingrimur J. Sigfusson ,Icelands Finance Minister,says its a serious matter and irresponsible to encourage people to not pay their debts sínar.ing loans for twoo weeks.

Next october 1st the Home Interest group is going to incurage people to stop paying their loans for two weeks.
That is to put pressure on the goverment and banks, to take action, and help the public.
Assets have decreased in value and loans increased.
Even though people can pay their loans, many see that they can never own their house or car, due to the loans increase.
The goverment is helping companys and big shareholders ,who got big loans ( bullet loans ) before the Banking crisis,but after the banking crisis, did not have to pay their loans.
To connected,the political parties and Bank Managers.

People do not see why they should pay ,when the goverment ,wich promised last spring to help families, has forgotten its promise to the public.

The President of Iceland ,signed today ,the Icesave agreement ,that the Icelandic parliement agreed to last friday.
Icelandic bloggers are not happy with that ,and on Icelandic blog pages,people have been telling what they think of that.

Photo: Mr. Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson ,the President of ICeland

Economy in Iceland - video

There are currently about 15,700 people unemployed in Iceland.
News received almost daily from people stopping to pay or want to stop paying of their loans.
Gunnar Sigurðsson, Director and Atli Steinn Gudmundsson, a newspaper man at visir.is, have both stopped paying their loans .
Here is a little video song about Iceland.