Both are islands, after all.
Here is your difference (as defined by my Boston Globe):
"Former leader of Iceland could face charges in financial crisis" by Gudjon Helgason and Paisley Dodds, Associated Press | September 29, 2010
REYKJAVIK, Iceland — Geir Haarde, former prime minister, has been referred to a special court in a move that could make him the first world leader to be charged in connection with the global financial crisis.
Related: Iceland's Future is AmeriKa's
It is happening RIGHT NOW, Americans!!
It's called FORECLOSUREGATE!
After a heated debate yesterday, lawmakers voted 33 to 30 to refer charges to the court against Haarde for allegedly failing to prevent Iceland’s 2008 financial crash — a crisis that sparked protests, toppled the government, and brought the economy to a standstill by collapsing its currency.
Related: Iceland's Example
Haarde faces up to two years in jail if found guilty.
That's all?
The court, which could dismiss the charges, has never before convened in Iceland’s history. A hearing date has not yet been set.
Haarde, former leader of the Independence Party, is no longer in Parliament and stepped down from office last year following widespread protests and treatment for esophageal cancer.
“I will answer all charges before the court, and I will be vindicated.’’ Haarde, 59, told the Icelandic Broadcaster RUV. “I have a clean slate. This charge borders on political persecution.’’
Iceland, a volcanic island with a population of 320,000, went from economic wunderkind to fiscal basket case almost overnight when the credit crunch took hold.
After dizzying economic growth that saw banks and companies in this tiny Nordic nation snap up assets around the world for a decade, the global financial crisis wreaked political and economic havoc in Iceland. Its banks collapsed in October 2008.
Unemployment has soared since then, and the country has lurched from crisis to crisis.
In April, an eruption at Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano triggered a giant ash cloud that disrupted global air travel for weeks and later restricted travel to and from the island nation.
Related: Iceland's Last Exhale
In the same month, a report into the banking collapse accused Haarde and the central bank chief of acting with “gross negligence’’ in allowing the financial sector to overheat without adequate oversight.
That is the position the U.S. government finds it self in only worse; it is ACTIVELY ASSISTING the BANKERS in LOOTING and IMPOVERISHING the PUBLIC it is supposed to be SERVING!
The 2,300-page government-commissioned report detailed a litany of mistakes made in the lead-up to the bank meltdown.
Pall Hreinsson, the supreme court judge appointed to head the Special Investigation Commission that issued the report, singled out seven former officials for particular criticism.
--more--"
Nothing about them arresting banksters in my corporate media though.
Also see: Icelanders Voice Their Vote on Bank Bailouts
Another bad example as determined by the agenda-pushing newspaper(?).
Ireland's answer to Iceland:
"Ireland to pump $16b more into banks" by Shawn Pogatchnik, Associated Press | October 1, 2010
DUBLIN — Ireland will have to pump $16 billion more into the country’s crippled banking system, dealing more grief to shellshocked Irish taxpayers.
Time to GET out that ANGER you are FAMOUS FOR, Irish!
Coupled with the downgrade of Spain’s bonds by a third ratings agency, the news yesterday from Dublin provided more evidence that Europe has not shed the debt troubles that shook the continent this spring as Greece teetered on the edge of bankruptcy.
After we were told by authority and mouthpiece media it was!
Irish government leaders described the total bill to fix their banks, about $60 billion, as “horrible’’ — but manageable. The bailout will swell Ireland’s deficit this year to a staggering 32 percent of economic output, the biggest in post-World War II Europe.
All I can say is that potato crop better come in good.
Related: Big freeze costs potato growers 15m
And what is this I hear of blizzards in Britain?
Global warming, right.
Yet investors seemed to find some solace in the view that Ireland at least had come clean about the worst of its troubles.
Then ALL is RIGHT with the WORLD if those LYING SCUMBAGS are HAPPY!
Irish government bonds and the Irish Stock Exchange rose, while European Union officials expressed confidence in what Ireland had done....
“This is a horrible legacy, the figures are numbing, and one would really wish we didn’t have this legacy from our property bubble and our banking system,’’ said the government’s communications minister, Eamon Ryan. “But we had it, and we have to deal with it.’’
The European Union welcomed Ireland’s harsh assessment as designed to consume as much bitter medicine as possible now....
So they can APPLY the BANKER'S TONIC!
Now OPEN UP, Ireland!
--more--"
