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Icelandic Prime Minister Resigns After Panama Data Leak (bloomberg.com)
Omar Valdimarsson, reporting for Bloomberg: The Panama secrecy leak claimed its first scalp after Icelandic Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson resigned following revelations about his personal finances. The decision was announced in parliament after the legislature had been the focus of street protests that attracted thousands of Icelanders angered by the alleged tax evasion of their leader. Gunnlaugsson, who will step down a year before his term was due to end, gave in to mounting pressure from the opposition and even from corners of his own party. The Panama documents leak, printed in newspapers around the world, showed that the 41-year-old premier and his wife had investments placed in the British Virgin Islands, which included debt in Iceland's three failed banks. An article on The Guardian sheds more light on this: The leaked documents from the Mossack Fonseca law firm show Gunnlaugsson and his wife, Anna Sigurlaug Palsdottir, bought a British Virgin Islands-based offshore company, Wintris Inc, in December 2007 to invest her share of the proceeds of the sale of her father's business, Iceland's only Toyota importer. Gunnlaugsson sold his 50% stake to his wife for a symbolic $1 at the end of 2009, eight months after he was elected to parliament as an MP for the centre-right Progressive party. He failed, however, to declare an interest in the company either then or when he became prime minister in 2013. His office has said his shareholding was an error due simply to the couple having a joint bank account and that it had "always been clear to both of them that the prime minister's wife owned the assets." The transfer of ownership was made as soon as this was pointed out, a spokesman said. The prime minister denies he was required to declare an interest.
Kinda cold for me and I'm not a huge pickled fish eater but otherwise they always sound great.
Of interest to Slashdotters is that the Pirate Party of Iceland currently has a generous lead in the polls if an early election is called.
Iceland has had its fair share of political upheaval post 2008. Fantastic country though -- I highly recommend a visit.
These are a very stoic people. They live on a volcanic island that is essentially trying every day to kill them off. In Iceland you can actually see the effect that the environment has on a population. They have some of the most dangerous roads I have ever seen in the world and absolutely no guard rails or for that matter not even much in the way of signs. You can hike out to the West cost of the island (which is the Westernmost point of Europe) and look down to the sea -- which is more than half a kilometer straight down. No railing. No signs. Not even a small rope. Just a nice grassy pleasant stroll until you just walk off the edge and plunge to your death. It's completely fantastic there.
They take this same stoic (you fuck up, you pay the price) view of their politicians and their banks.
I am not interested in articles about life extension advancements.
Iceland's citizenry turned out by the thousands to protest their PM's refusal to resign after the Panama Papers revealed his corruption. The Kremlin on the other hand has already called the Panama Papers a CIA plot, (big surprise there). Hopefully, if the Panama Papers do reveal Putin used a shell to hide his money, Russia's citizens will not stand for it and force his hand. Let's hope other nation's citizens follow suit, including here in the U.S.
Well, at least their politicians still have the decency to resign when they get caught with the hand in the cookie jar instead of shrugging and basically saying "And what you're gonna do about it, plebs?"
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Right, because the US wants to get rid of the conservatives in Iceland and install the Pirates? Is that what you think is going on? The Pirates who want to give Snowden citizenship?
If I ever become wealthy and mad, I'll leave Companion Cubes on desert islands for shipwreck survivors.
First off, his name is not "Gunnlaugsson". That's not a last name, it's a patronymic. It just means that his father's name is Gunnlaugur. The proper way to refer to him is Sigmundur, Sigmundur Davíð, or if you want to be "familiar", just Simmi.
Secondly, Simmi was absolutely not an "enemy of the bankster elite". That's the whole point of this incident - he actually is a part owner of the failed banks, despite having campaigned on fighting against them.
If I ever become wealthy and mad, I'll leave Companion Cubes on desert islands for shipwreck survivors.
He did run for election to stop this type of corruption. Iceland was probably the nation that suffered the worst from the bank meltdowns nearly a decade ago. So its a big thing on Iceland. In most other nations it would have been a blip on the radar and nothing would have happened. But on Iceland its an important issue.
Yesterday it was a "small" demonstration where little less then a tenth of all of icelanders was demonstrating. Ok, so it was like 25 000 people, but with a population of only 330 000 its a big deal. The politicians take notice and have to act.
In China any mention of Panama is forbidden and I doubt Russia will change much for this. Belarus is though another place where this might affect the leadership.
Just saying it like it are.
Also a myth. The three largest banks went into receivership, but they weren't government backed; they were backed by a private fund, with the British and Dutch governments as the secondary insurers (they sued... it went to the EFTA court... the EFTA court affirmed this). But Iceland pumped tons of money into the banking system in general, raising our national debt from about 25% of GDP to around 100%. We got a stake in the banks that were in receivership due to the money we pumped in (akin to the US stakes in the auto industry during their bailout), but we sold them off at firesale prices as soon as possible to avoid any perception that there was intent to run them. The rush to sell them off lost us huge amounts of money, yet apparently people still think we nationalized them.
This whole conflict revolves around our prime minister actually being a bank creditor and giving tons of money to bank creditors, so I'm not sure how you're trying to spin this as an attempt to punish anti-banking people. You do realize that our current governing coalition is the same parties that were governing back 2007-2008, right?
If I ever become wealthy and mad, I'll leave Companion Cubes on desert islands for shipwreck survivors.
The notion of confidence is the chief reason Walter Bagehot, 150 years ago, observed the superiority of the Westminster system to the Presidential system. Short of a trial and conviction for impeachment, there's precious little Congress can do about an errant president.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
He shouldn't have had to resign for this. That's ludicrous.
Funneling off $2B of state money in order to benefit "corporate creditors" of banks of which he just happens to be one himself in secret is kind of a big thing in a country with fewer inhabitants than a suburb in the U.S. In particular when you won your election basically on themes fighting corporate greed and corruption.
He probably needed to resign solely in order to be able to leave the country legally as fast as possible.
Well 22k citizens of a possible total of 330k showed up to protest... 6.6% of their entire population.
That would be the equivalent of about 22 Million people showing up outside the Whitehouse (or 2.3 Million in Ottawa) ... I'm pretty sure there would be no "And what you're gonna do about it, plebs?". More likely there were be a lot of awkward silence and a hasty departure.
I mean a lot of people made a big deal about the "million man march"... now do that 22 times bigger. Regardless of police or military, that would make a corrupt politician pretty damn nervous....
What is even crazier about the Iceland numbers is that 330k population includes things like babies, and the very elderly etc... Meaning that an even higher percentage of the able population showed up!
The Prime Minister is properly addressed by his first name, Sigmundur, not "Gunnlaugsson," which is not surname like we use in English but a patronymic (his father is named Gunnlaug). Icelandic name.
Liberty in your lifetime