Comments for Debtonation

Comment on What future for Capitalism? - Ann on Al Jazeera by the.Duke.of.URL

2010-03-08T13:10:24Z

Ann, It was a fascinating program. I agree with David Williams about Ruth Lea. I thought she was dreadful. You and Tariq Ali had the most useful things to say. Joe was a disappointment, as is his book.

Comment on The markets demand their pound of flesh by David Williams

2010-03-08T12:53:49Z

Post in haste - repent at leisure. I do understand how assets owned by banks (and liabilities) can be greater than 100% of GDP. And, in fact the two figures (UK Bank Assets and UK Gross Domestic Product) are not linked. Sorry.

Comment on The markets demand their pound of flesh by David Williams

2010-03-08T12:24:17Z

Ann.

I know that it is not key to the article (with which I totally agree) but in it, Butler writes, “failures of UK regulation that permitted the financial system’s balance sheet to pass 400 per cent of GDP.” And you respond, “Nothing controversial in the latter point.”

I don’t understand what it means to say that the “financial system’s balance sheet” passes 400% of GDP? I thought that the financial system forms part of GDP and therefore can’t be more than 100%. Clearly, I’m wrong. Can you help me understand?

Thanks

Comment on After Iceland’s Referendum, What Next? by ann

2010-03-07T20:11:54Z

Thanks for these comments….And thanks G Sam for the alert….We are on the case.

Comment on What future for Capitalism? - Ann on Al Jazeera by David Williams

2010-03-07T15:07:09Z

An interesting programme, although still too short of suggestions for the specific actions that government should take (beyond the idea of “chapter 11″ for American home-owners.)

I nearly fell off my perch when I heard Ruth Lea saying that regulation in the past had been poor, and calling for tighter regulation in the future.

She was one of the cheerleaders for unfettered capitalism in the bubble years and as “Chief Economist” of Lehman Brothers.

Her career should have been wound up along with that casino bank or at least she should have the good grace to keep quiet now.

Comment on After Iceland’s Referendum, What Next? by G Sam

2010-03-06T00:46:29Z

Thanks for the great articles, been following the site since the THIS IS HELL interview.

Just a heads up that you need to fix your blog, or at least update the WordPress version. There’s a SEO hack visible at the top of pages when you turn off javascript.

Comment on After Iceland’s Referendum, What Next? by M.E. Randeria

2010-03-05T11:23:50Z

I have been reading your very incisive views but wonder whether why dont influential commentators like you question and dig into the FEW FAT CATS in ICELAND who have benefited immensely from this crime while no one asks them to account for the debacle. See my email below to your PM to which I have not received a reply.

To: johanna@althingi.is
Sent: Friday, February 05, 2010 11:00 AM
Subject: your meeting with the EU on Thursday

Dear Johanna

I am writing to you after reading about your meeting with the EU on Thursday. I have great sympathy with the mood of the Icelandic people who rightly feel very sore in baling out the British and Dutch depositors through no fault of their own.

I am 73 now and am one of the big losers from having made had my life saving on deposit with Landsbanki in Guernsey. Although, I am now in London, I have lived in Scandinavia many years, have visited Iceland and have great admiration for the skill, know how and resilience of the Icelanders.

HOWEVER, FROM WHERE I SIT, I DO NOT SEE THAT ICELANDIC GOVERNMENT HAVE EITHER PROSECUTED, LEAVE ALONE PUNISHED ANY OF THE FAT CATS IN ICELAND WHO HAVE BENEFITED IMMENSELY FROM THIS ENORMOUS TRAGEDY. I BELIEVE THAT PEOPLE AT THE TOP IN ICELAND ARE HEAVILY IMPLICATED AND INVOLVED IN FIRST ENRICHING THEMSELVES AND THEN IN COVERING UP TO PROTECT THEIR BACK SIDES.

For a small country like Iceland, who are the people heading up the investigating commissions and how can the Icelandic voters and men in the street be sure that they have no axe to grind or protect their own back sides. Or the commission won’t be just a whitewash? Even if that’s not the case, what real punishments (in fund recovery) can be imposed to satisfy the many aged depositors who placed their life savings with Landsbanki? Some have died during the year and others are in great financial hardship.

In saying ‘’many Icelanders believe they were the victims of failures in EU legislation and that the burden of Iceland’s banking collapse was being unfairly distributed among the three countries involved’’ you would show greater integrity if you put your hands up and confessed that there were rotten apples at the top in Iceland, all colluding together at the expense of the man in the street and GO AFTER THESE IN A VIGOROUS WAY. AFTER ALL, THESE PEOPLE ARE STILL LIVING IN LUXURY.

Would be happy if you as the PM, the President and the people of Iceland do more to punish these Icelandic MADOFFS and others who conspired from the government. Sorry to say but smacks of a Banana Republic rather than a North European country with built in integrity.

Sincerely

Comment on After Iceland’s Referendum, What Next? by josina kamerling

2010-03-05T09:33:02Z

Couldnt agree more!See also the push for creating a european rating agency! We need more Europe not less!

Comment on How Greece’s Crisis Could Impact America by Talton Embry

2010-03-03T05:09:00Z

My comment is “awaiting moderation” - what a wonderfully bureaucratic phrase. Does this site speak truth to power or is it a quisling?

Comment on How Greece’s Crisis Could Impact America by Nicholas Colloff

2010-03-02T18:38:59Z

Anne,

The answer to your rhetorical question is no! We have a political leadership that is mesmerised by ‘finance’ and the ‘growth’ it is presumed to bring; and, both these words seem to paralyse constructive thought and, thus, even where regulators perceive critical risk, they do not operate in a context that allows them to act with the appropriate diligence.

There is also insufficent pressure from the ‘polis’ for our leaders to act - the perceived complexity of the issues appears to stymie genuine popular anger -and it gets diverted to subsidury issues like bonuses.