Huffington Post

28th September, 2010

Iceland’s former Prime Minister Geir Haarde 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.

After a heated debate Tuesday, lawmakers voted 33-30 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.

Haarde faces up to two years in jail if found guilty. The court, which could dismiss the charges, has never before convened in Iceland’s history. A hearing date has not yet been set.

Haarde, ex-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 just 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.

Bloomberg

12th September, 2010

Iceland’s parliament must decide whether to charge leading members of the country’s 2008 cabinet with negligence that contributed to the island’s banking collapse after a committee recommended they be indicted.

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Iceland after the Fall

27/07/10

Monthly Review

by Sam Knight

Financial crises and uncertainty go hand in hand; some make sacrifices and others plan on having to.  But how many countries stricken by the global crisis actually feel existentially threatened?

Iceland does.  Since the start of the kreppa (“catastrophe” in Icelandic) in the fall of 2008, the small island nation of 320,000 has had to contend with the serious possibility of mass migration.  IMF intervention and private debt gone public galore has left the country with a grim future.  Knee-deep in kreppa, it could be slim pickings for Icelanders for years to come.

Thankfully, this crisis has taught Icelanders that they don’t have to put up with all this kreppa and should question their new-found debt.  A popular revolt called the Kitchenware Revolution occurred in January 2009, forcing the resignation of the government that privatized Iceland’s financial system, let it implode, then refused to take responsibility.  A generation of Icelanders learned that democracy, sometimes, means grabbing the system by the horns. Read the rest of this entry »