Iceland Crumbling: EU its Hope?
Northern Shore of Reykjavík, Iceland
Iceland seems to be in even more financial trouble than the other countries I have been reporting on. Notice the following news items:
REYKJAVÍK, Iceland — Saying Iceland was at risk of “national bankruptcy,” Prime Minister Geir Haarde prepared to give regulators authority to take over the nation’s ailing banks as a worsening financial crisis all but cut off the island from the global financial system.
Credit lines to Iceland’s banks closed down Monday, Mr. Haarde said in a televised address. Late Monday, Iceland’s parliament was voting on an emergency law that could put the entire banking system under government control. It was expected to pass.
“There is a very real danger, fellow citizens, that the Icelandic economy, in the worst case, could be sucked with the banks into the whirlpool and the result could be national bankruptcy,” Mr. Haarde said. After the speech, Standard & Poors cut Iceland’s foreign-currency sovereign-debt rating for a second time in a week.
“The banking system is not functioning,” said Paul Biszko, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in Toronto. “Everybody’s cutting them off.”…
If banks dump their foreign assets, that should also boost the wilting Icelandic krona. The currency is off more than 40% against the euro this year, an example of how badly the banking crisis is bleeding into the broader economy…
Meantime, the International Monetary Fund sent a fact-finding team to Iceland, an IMF spokesman said Monday. source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122331879240408481.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
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What a difference a year makes. Only last November, Iceland’s status as one of the most successful economies in the West was underlined when it was judged the best place to live in the world.
Iceland had also presided over the fastest expansion of a banking system anywhere in the world. Little did anyone know that the expansion once so admired would go on to saddle the country with liabilities in excess of $100 billion – liabilities that now dwarf its gross domestic product of $14 billion.
Iceland overreached itself in spectacular fashion, and the party is coming to a messy end.
Yesterday, trading in the shares of six major financial institutions was suspended as the government sought to avert meltdown. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/3147866/Financial-crisis-Icelands-dreams-go-up-in-smoke.html
Iceland’s Financial Woes Could Push It Closer to EU
Iceland is in trouble. With credit markets frozen, the country is looking for a way to prop up its debt-laden banking system. The currency is already tanking as are stocks in some of its leading banks. Could EU membership be on the horizon?
Spiegel – Oct 6, 2008
If one is looking for a barometer by which to measure the rapidly expanding global financial crisis, Iceland might be the best place to look. After years of lending huge amounts of money overseas, Iceland’s banks have now been slammed as credit dries up and the value of the country’s currency, the krona, plunges. Even worse, many are concerned the government in Reykjavik might not be able to afford a bailout of the country’s wobbling financial institutions…
Labor Union Calls for EU Membership
The country’s Pension Fund Association — whose assets totalled some €13.4 billion ($18.4 billion) at the end of 2007, much of it held overseas — has also expressed its readiness to sell many of its foreign assets to bring home liquidity. According to news reports, though, Iceland’s trade unions are demanding that Reykjavik apply to join the European Union and move to adopt the euro in return for reducing the pension fund’s overseas assets. “We should aim for EU membership and the adoption of the euro as soon as possible,” a labor union memo published by a local Icelandic paper stated. http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,582487,00.html
While the Living Church of God does not have a church in Iceland, its Rod King was there a few months ago and did a couple of radio interviews to explain the Church and the Gospel (see LCG Taking the Gospel Message to Iceland and Europe).
Despite its overall desire to remain outside the European Union, I believe that Iceland will either be part of the EU or at least be more involved with it than it has been in the past.
Several articles of possibly related interest may include:
Who is the King of the North? Is there one? Do biblical and Roman Catholic prophecies point to the same leader? Should he be followed? Who will be the King of the North discussed in Daniel 11? Is a nuclear attack prophesied to happen to the English-speaking peoples of the United States, Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand? When do the 1335 days, 1290 days, and 1260 days (the time, times, and half a time) of Daniel 12 begin? When does the Bible show that economic collapse will affect the United States?
Europa, the Beast, and Revelation Where did Europe get its name? What might Europe have to do with the Book of Revelation? What about “the Beast”? What is ahead for Europe?
Anglo – America in Prophecy & the Lost Tribes of Israel Are the Americans, Canadians, British, Scottish, Welsh, Australians, Anglo-Southern Africans, and New Zealanders descendants of Joseph? Where are the lost ten-tribes of Israel? Who are the lost tribes of Israel? Will God punish the U.S.A., Canada, United Kingdom, and other Anglo nations? Why might God allow them to be punished first?
End of Mayan Calendar 2012–Might 2012 Mean Something? There is a Mayan calendar prediction for change in 2012. 2012 changes were also centuries ago predicted by the Hopi Native Americans (the Hindus may have some predictions for the next decade as well). Do these Mayan/Hindu/Hopi prophecies have any value? Why might Satan have inspired this date? Does the Dresden codex show destruction of the earth by flood? Can the great tribulation start before 2012?
Does God Have a 6,000 Year Plan? What Year Does the 6,000 Years End? Was a 6000 year time allowed for humans to rule followed by a literal thousand year reign of Christ on Earth taught by the early Christians? When does the six thousand years of human rule end?
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