#106. The people´s democratic rejection....

Jakobína Ingunn ólafsdóttir sendi frú Blanksma tölvupóst.  Ég ákvað að gera það líka.

 

Dear Ms. Blanksma,

I hope this e-mail finds you well.  It´s more of a read than I anticipated but I hope you (or your assistant) take the time to glance through it, especially the indent text and the bold text which are my highlights if you want to take the short version.

An article in an online version of an Icelandic newspaper, Morgunblaðið, got my attention as it contains a  brief translation of a reply to a query the newspaper sent you.

You are quoted:  "This is a contract that can we not move away from.  Negative outcome of this referendum has no bearing on this Agreement.  I am even more astonished by the chaos in domestic affairs.  It is very unwise politically and economically as well.

Christian Democratic Party views that one way or another, the debt must paid.  If not, we will meet in the courtroom."

The newspaper stated the translation was brief and crude.

The common taxpayer in Iceland is not happy that depositors lost money from the Iceland bank collapse.  It is not fair to these depositors be they Dutch, British or from elsewhere for that matter.  But you have to understand that the common taxpayer can not be expected to be accountable for a private bank collapse.  Anywhere.  That is the nature of the EU law for the depositors guarantee scheme.  The credit institutions are responsible.  The Icelandic depositors guarantee scheme was established the same way as in other European countries.

Here are some facts affecting the general public: 

• Fuel price is now double, in krona, from October 2008 while salaries have stayed the same and overall housing income dropped over same period.
• Mortgage in Iceland has increased by 30% since October 2008.
  • And this may be the biggest a surprise to you: Please note that on top of interest rates Iceland is the only country in the world to link mortgage payments to a consumption index, meaning any increase in prices on common consumer goods such as coffee, fuel, sugar, corn, milk, bread, cigarettes and alcohol to name a few, all work together and increase the balance and payment of the mortgage on a monthly basis. E.g. a non-smoking person essentially suffers through his/her mortgage because somebody else wants to smoke! Incredible isn´t it?
• House values have dropped by 20% since October 2008.
• A vast portion of households was offered illegal loans by Icelandic credit institutions who linked mortgage capital and payments to foreign currencies. They then bought currencies on currency markets working against their customers interests and deflating the krona. Or introduced Icesave. A big portion of the public fled the established indexed mortgages and car leases described above to try out these new loan options.

Ms. Blanksma, are you aware that early October 2008 British authorities used the UK anti-terrorist act to freeze all assets of Landsbanki, the creator of Icesave, and thereby labeling a country without a military, the republic of Iceland, UK´s ally during WW2, and its public as terrorists? Putting the nation side by side with Al-Qaeda.  (There are maybe 200 automatic rifles total in the whole Icelandic police armory!)  UK supreme Courts have ruled similar proceedings as unlawful, even towards suspected terrorists.  Details can be read here:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8482630.stm.  Yet Prime minister Brown and Chancellor of Treasury Darling imposed the same act against an Icelandic private bank, very likely contributing to it´s subsequent collapse and the consequent downturn of Iceland´s economy.  The amount of damage this decision did can probably never be calculated nor confirmed.

Are you aware that these actions by the UK authorities made it impossible for Icelandic companies to transfer payments to foreign suppliers worldwide and foreign customers could not pay Icelandic companies for their services and products?  I am sure you agree this action was in effect a breach of one major pillar of the EU single market; namely the free movement of capital within the EEA.  And if the Brits state that unusual circumstances justified this action, well what can the Icelandic authorities say regarding the depositor´s bailout?  By the way, rumors say that 20 of the richest families in Iceland benefited from 95 percent of the bailout.  Not the general public who is now to be dragged to the gallows by the UK and Dutch authorities. That´s how the Icelandic authorities distributed the domestic bailout!

Are you aware that these actions by the UK authorities were a contributing factor that to last of the big banks, Kaupthing, collapsing?  The freezing order by Mr. Brown and Mr. Darling on Landsbanki caused a "rally" on Kaupthing Singer&Friedlander which was then taken over by UK authorities, putting the last nail in the economies coffin.

Ms. Blanksma, before you judge the people of Iceland I urge to investigate the facts of this matter thoroughly.  I am sure your counterparts here in the Icelandic parliament can assist with facts and dates if needed.  English excerpts from Althingi´s Special Committee investigation can be found here: http://sic.althingi.is/

Finally, if you have reached this far, I urge you to check the capital of the Dutch depositors guarantee scheme to verify it can indeed withstand the collapse of 90% of the Dutch bank system in one week and repay all depositors their deposits claim as you are determined to have Iceland do.  I doubt the scheme can cover 50% of the maximum guarantee of €20.887 for all accounts for such a collapse.

A lot of Dutch depositors would loose their money if this would happen for the Dutch banking system. 

What would you and Mr. de Jager do in such circumstances?

I urge you to look at the big picture before you decide to take actions against the general public of Iceland!

Thank you for your attention.

 

PS: By the way, it is expected that all of Landsbanki´s assets in Euros will cover claims for accounts in Euros.  The uncertainty is towards asset recovery in British pounds, US dollars, Canadian dollars and Swiss francs to pay the UK depositors.

We welcome your visit any time, our krona is cheaper than Bangladeshi Taka so you can make good shopping.

1 Euro=103 BDT

1 Euro=162 ISK (if you buy in Amsterdam it´s around 210 ISK)

 

Best regards,

Erlingur A. Jónsson

Hóta að standa í vegi aðildar að ESB

Athugasemdir

[Jón Steinar Ragnarsson, 13.4.2011 kl. 06:25]

Algerlega brilliant og yfirvegð ádrepa.  Var ekki vert að nefna að þeir hirtu Kaupthing Edge með manni og mús og ekki hefur spurst enn af því hvert það fé fór?  Hef ekki séð neina sundurliðun á því.  Var það kannski að stórum hluta rán?