I'm not so much impressed by the economic growth as much as I am that they put criminally negligent thieves in prison.
Agreed. But then, when you have the same population as the county I currently live in you can get away with stuff like that.
Why am I suddenly reminded of how bad the legal system here in Finland is, at least compared to other countries I've heard of?
It's like "guilty unless proven otherwise", the news are not allowed to give any info about trials and everything's under police surveillance.
It's not just Finland.
Figures...
Following up on Quandary's ignored post
(Not The Guardian for Aubrey)
I guess there was a 48-hour general strike that failed to stop the austerity budget?
Did the strike spread to any of the other countries, European Paizo brethren?
Why Iceland rocks and the rest of the world sucks
Even though sending the guilty guys to jail is a good thing, the growth should be put into context: Iceland is a very small economy (115-120th in the world) just comming out from a severe period of negative growth, as it can be seen here.
It is common for economies to bounce back after periods of crisis and experiment sudden explosions of high growth rates. Being such a small economy and having such a tiny population, it is very likely that Iceland just managed to overcome the crisis faster than the US.
While I'm not completely intimate to the process of bailing out banks in the US, perhaps it is still early to judge the outcome.
For example, I'm from Chile, a country which experimented a very acute crisis in the early 80's, very similar to the one currently undergoing most of the developed world (although in our case specifically contained within our economy). And the way to fix it was for the State to intervene and capitalize the banks, which literally saved the economy, jumpstarted growth and ended up with a financial sector that is currently considered the most stable and solid in the world, which among other things allowed us to pass through the current crisis completely untouched.
It took several years, however, and only in 1987-188 the economy started to see the effects of the measures. A series of very strict controls and checks were put into the bailout, in order to make sure baks would return all the money given to them (they finished paying off the whole thing in the mid-2000's). But when it was implemented, it seemed a pretty bleak scenario. It ultimately paid out, though.
Sorry to disappoint, but the downtrodden masses of Europe didn't rise as one.
Yes, I later realized that the planned southern European-wide general strike is scheduled for this week.
One day Anklebiter will actually rise to power and command the downtrodden masses.
That day I hope to have my private self-propelled island ready and escape into the South Pacific.
That won't save you, Citizen Van Der Kroft. Not even a little bit.
The banners and placards.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
Oooh, "Spain wins relief from austerity as general strike rages"?
Well, it's not the down-trodden of Europe rising up as one, but I'll take it.
Viva la huelga general!
Vive le Galt!
They sure are milking the "crisis" for all it's worth. Let me explain: None of this was a surprise. I suspect the reason it happened when it did was that they had their Lisbon treaty and the increased control of the member countries' economies by then. There is no sense in wasting a good crisis to a politician, and they sure aren't.