What is life like for people in Iceland now?
Have heard a lot of people say we should have gone down the Iceland route with the banks. However does anyone have any hard information about what life is like for the average Icelander now. How did it affect their daily lives, were they unable to get certain goods, did they lose deposits, pensions etc?
They lost about 20% of their savings. Irish people will lose too through tax increases as the government tries to maintain an expensive and unreformed public sector by eeking out as much as possible from a stagnant economy.
Unemployment in Iceland is about 6% and its economy will grow about 3% this year. Those responsible for its crisis have been held to account.
However, Iceland doesn't have a Micheál Martin type leader so it's not all going their way.
How did it affect their daily lives, were they unable to get certain goods, did they lose deposits, pensions etc?
At least, Icelanders don't have a government that believes in putting the interests of foreigners(we took one for the team) ahead of their own people.
Oh, how I remember the jokes and smug remarks on the Irish forums when Iceland went bust.
Dire. Global warming is having a big effect.
Most of Iceland's economy is based on exports of raw materials and fish. In other words, it doesn't matter how poorly Iceland's economy is run, or whether or not it has a functioning banking system, as long as the rest of the world keeps buying fish and raw materials, they would be fine.
Which is great for Iceland, but unfortunately the same rules don't apply for us.
To be honest that would mean more to me than having an extra €500 a month. We're being ridden by our government to serve themselves, their crony capitalist buddies in the banks and Europe, in that precise order. In Iceland they have demonstrated that their first priority was the citizens of their country....I wonder what that actually feels like?
I hear It's been a lot better since they sacked Kerry Katona.
But I guess Ireland exports more beef and dairy products? The Icelandic people are obviously doing something right - the Irish are obviously doing something wrong. How many people have emigrated from Iceland in the last 4 years I wonder?
Agriculture makes up a small proportion of our exports.
"The Icelandic people are obviously doing something right" By doing something right do you mean "Having a lot of natural resources divided amongst a small population" then I guess you are right.
Some further reading which may (or may not) interest you.
Iceland is doing remarkably well. It has unemployment of around 6%, it's economy is growing faster than the US and EU and they're not saddled with odious debt.
The Argentines are another example. They also told the banks to stuff it, only that Cristina Kirchner acts a bit like a woman who thinks credit cards have no limits in posh shops (well the real reason for inflationary policy is probably along the lines of making life hard for any middle class groundswell of opposition), hence an inflation rate of 20% plus (although saying that is a crime there), which is some achievement. Comparing the two, it shows there are good and bad ways to tell banks and bondholders to stuff it. Spending has to be kept utterly in check, if credit is not to be got too easily. Iceland seems able to live within its means. Ireland has no currency of its own, and utterly immobile interest groups, so the Argentine or Icelandic route would be difficult to impossible.
So, for the most part, Iceland doesn't have the amount or range of exports that Ireland has? I wonder what is the nationality of the staff working in Iceland's MacDonalds?
The Icelandic economy didn't collapse because of a fish bubble. Icelandic banks borrowed big and lent big - just like ours. The Icelandic government decided not to prop up its banks - everyone took an immediate hit and the Icelandic economy was rebalanced.
Ireland is still struggling to get to that point.
I hear their geysers keep the place warm, and the water even hotter.
They can grow bananas there too, so all is well.
As far as I know there Chief of Army does not earn more the the CoS of the U.S Army.
Do they even have an army???
I do know they'll pull themselves out of their troubles long before we do.
'Can you spell ICELAND?', was what passed for an argument from eurotrons during the Lisbon 2 debate.
I wouldn't mind if this was an academic discussion about how different countries responded to the economic crisis 4 years ago. However, we keep making mistakes. Michael Noonan will need to find an extra €360m in budget 2013 because the govt has agreed to remove the charge imposed on the covered banks. The removal of the charge will improve the bank's balance sheets. So that's good news.
Software is the biggest export in Ireland.....despite our Luddite government of 1960s teachers and country solicitors Irish developers have renowned skills and support a huge software industry....we'd survive if our government had the balls.