A near-riot and parliament besieged: Iceland boiling mad at credit crunch – In 39 US cities across the country, FED-UP! – Economy’s tumble even worse than expected
A near-riot and parliament besieged:
Iceland boiling mad at credit crunch
24 November 2008
THOUSANDS of Icelanders have demonstrated in Reykjavik to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Geir Haarde and Central Bank governor David Oddsson, for failing to stop the country’s financial meltdown.
It was the latest in a series of protests in the capital since October’s banking collapse crippled the island’s economy. At least five people were injured and Hordur Torfason, a well-known singer in Iceland and the main organiser of the protests, said the protests would continue until the government stepped down.
As crowds gathered in the drizzle before the Althing, the Icelandic parliament, on Saturday, Mr Torfason said: “They don’t have our trust and they are no longer legitimate.”
The value of the Icelandic krona has been cut in half since January.
Four Nordic countries, as well as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), have pledged to lend the country a combined $4.6 billion to help revive its deflated economy. The loan would be the first by the IMF to a Western nation since 1976.
One young man climbed on to the balcony of the Althing building, where the president appears upon inauguration and on Iceland’s national day, and hung a banner reading: “Iceland for Sale: $2,100,000,000″ – the amount of the loan the country is getting from the IMF.
A separate group of 200-300 people gathered in front of the city’s main police station, throwing eggs and demanding the release of a young protester being held there.
Police in riot gear used pepper spray to drive back an attempt to free the protester during which several windows at the police station were shattered. The pro-tester was later released after his fine was paid.
As daylight began to wane, demonstrators drifted away into the nearby coffee shops. Here, as currency tumbles, the price of a cup of coffee has shot up by about one-third since before the crisis struck.
The demonstrators accuse the government – elected last year – of not doing enough to regulate the banking industry and have called for early elections.
Iceland’s next election is not required until 2011.
Opposition parties tabled a no-confidence motion in the government on Friday over its handling of the crisis, but the motion carries little chance of toppling the ruling coalition which has a solid parliamentary majority.
Gudrun Jonsdottir, a 36-year-old office worker, said: “I’ve just had enough of this whole thing. I don’t trust the government, I don’t trust the banks, I don’t trust the political parties, and I don’t trust the IMF.
“We had a good country and they ruined it.”
BACKGROUND
ICELAND’S three biggest banks – Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir – collapsed under the weight of billions of dollars of debts accumulated in an aggressive overseas expansion, shattering the country’s currency. Iceland’s government seized control of all three institutions in early October.
This week, the North Atlantic island nation, which has a population of only 320,000, secured a package of more than US$10 billion (about £6.7 billion) in loans from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and several European countries to help it rebuild its shattered financial system.
Despite the intervention, however, Iceland still faces a sharp economic slowdown and surging job losses while at least one-third of Icelanders are also at risk of losing their homes and life savings.
Geir Haarde, the Icelandic prime minister, has promised that the government will use the IMF money to bring back a flexible interest rate scheme and rewrite financial laws, particularly legislation relating to insolvency.
Iceland was the first country to ask the IMF for help as the turmoil in the credit markets in October hit home.
The UK government used anti-terrorism legislation to freeze money deposited by UK savers in Icelandic banks in order to ensure that their money was protected.
http://news.scotsman.com/world/A-nearriot-and–parliament.4722970.jp
In 39 cities across the country, FED-UP!
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Economy’s tumble even worse than expected in 3Q
The economy took a tumble in the summer that was worse than first thought as American consumers throttled back their spending by the most in 28 years, further proof the country is almost certainly in the throes of a painful recession.
The updated reading on the economy’s performance, released Tuesday by the Commerce Department, showed the gross domestic product shrank at a 0.5 percent annual rate in the July-September quarter.
That was weaker than the 0.3 percent rate of decline first estimated a month ago, and marked the worst showing since the economy contracted at a 1.4 percent pace in the third quarter of 2001, when the nation was suffering through its last recession.
GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced within the U.S. and is considered the best barometer of the country’s economic fitness.
“Consumers and businesses were like deer in the headlights … frozen,” said economist Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics.
The new reading on GDP underscores just how quickly the economy deteriorated as housing, credit and financial crises intensified. The economy logged growth of 2.8 percent in the second quarter.
White House press secretary Dana Perino called the lower GDP figure “troubling” and said new government efforts announced Tuesday to boost the availability of auto and student loans, credit cards, home loans and other consumer lending — at cheaper rates — should eventually help spur more consumer spending.
On Wall Street, those new government efforts provided an early lift to stocks, but the Dow Jones industrials were down around 35 points in late-morning trading.
Elsewhere, the New York-based Conference Board said its Consumer Confidence Index for November rose to 44.9, from a revised 38.8 in October. Last month’s reading was the lowest since the research group started tracking the index in 1967.
Economists surveyed by Thomson Reuters expected the November reading to slip to 37.9. Still, this month’s figure hovers around levels not seen since December 1974, with Americans’ views on the economy the gloomiest in decades as they grapple with massive layoffs, slumping home prices and dwindling retirement funds.
To revive the economy, President-elect Barack Obama, who takes over on Jan. 20, says a top priority will be working with Congress to enact a massive stimulus package that he says will generate millions of new jobs.
The new, lower third-quarter GDP reading matched economists’ forecasts. The downgrade from the initial estimate mostly reflected an even sharper cut back in spending by consumers and less brisk sales growth of U.S. exports.
American consumers — the lifeblood of the economy — slashed spending in the third quarter at a 3.7 percent pace. That was deeper than the 3.1 percent cut initially reported and marked the biggest reduction since the second quarter of 1980, when the country was in the grip of recession.
Consumers are hunkering down amid job losses, tanking investment portfolios and sinking home values, which are making them nervous about spending.
Underscoring the strain faced by consumers, the report showed that Americans’ disposable income fell at an annual rate of 9.2 percent in the third quarter, the largest quarterly drop on records dating back to 1947. The government’s initial estimate had showed a record 8.7 percent decline in disposable income for the quarter.
Sales of U.S. exports grew at a 3.4 percent pace in the third quarter. That was lower than a 5.9 percent growth rate initially estimated and marked a sharp slowdown from the second quarter’s blistering 12.3 percent growth rate. The deceleration reflects less demand from overseas buyers coping with their own economic problems.
Home builders slashed spending at a 17.6 percent pace, marking the 11th straight quarterly cut and fresh evidence of the depth of the housing slump.
Meanwhile, a report on home prices released Tuesday and downbeat earnings results from homebuilder D.R. Horton, showed further deterioration in the housing market. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index said that home prices tumbled a record 16.6 percent during the third quarter from the same period a year ago. Prices are at levels not seen since the first quarter of 2004.
Fort Worth, Tex.-based D.R. Horton Inc. reported a nearly $800 million loss in its fiscal fourth quarter on slower home sales and more than $1 billion in charges amid a battered housing market.
To help revive the economy, the Federal Reserve is expected to lower interest rates when its meets on Dec. 16, its last session of the year. Last month, the Fed dropped its key rate to 1 percent, a level seen only once before in the last half-century.
So far, though, the Fed’s rate reductions, a $700 billion financial bailout package and a flurry of other radical actions have been unable to break though a dangerous credit clog, restore stability to financial markets and help the sinking economy.
Banks are failing and storied Wall Street firms been laid low by the crises. Home foreclosures have soared and jobs are vanishing.
The nation’s unemployment rate is at 6.5 percent, a 14-year high, and will climb higher. Employers have cut payrolls every month so far this year and more losses are expected in the months ahead. The total of number of unemployed in October was just over 10 million, the most in 25 years.
Given all the stresses, consumers are expected to burrow further, making it likely the economy will continue to shrink through the rest of this year and into 2009, more than fulfilling a classic definition of a recession. That is, two straight quarters of contracting GDP
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