Iceland Arrests Bankers

[Dr. Phil]

I was watching Moscow News yesterday and there was a discussion about Iceland arresting a number of bankers who were involved in the recent sub-prime scam and it was mentioned that this news had been deliberately withheld by western media. They claimed US banks had been making dodgy loans to each other and making huge bonuses.
So I googled.


QUOTE
REYKJAVIK — More than a year and a half after Iceland's major banks failed, all but sinking the country's economy, police have begun rounding up a number of top bankers while other former executives and owners face a two-billion-dollar lawsuit.

Since Iceland's three largest banks -- Kaupthing, Landsbanki and Glitnir -- collapsed in late 2008, their former executives and owners have largely been living untroubled lives abroad.

But the publication last month of a parliamentary inquiry into the island nation's profound financial and economic crisis signaled a turning of the tide, laying much of the blame for the downfall on the former bank heads who had taken "inappropriate loans from the banks" they worked for.

On Wednesday, the administrators of Glitnir's liquidation announced they had filed a two-billion-dollar (1.6-billion-euro) lawsuit in a New York court against former large shareholders and executives for alleged fraud.

[...] In addition to its New York suit, Glitnir said it had "secured a freezing order from the High Court in London against Jon Asgeir Johannesson's worldwide assets, including two apartments in Manhattan's exclusive Gramercy Park neighbourhood for which he paid approximately 25 million dollars."

Gudbjartsdottir said Johannesson had just 48 hours to come up with a satisfactory list of his assets.

"If he does not give the right information he faces a jail sentence," she said.

Four former Kaupthing executives, who all live in Luxembourg, have meanwhile been arrested in Iceland in the past week and Interpol has issued an international arrest warrant for that bank's ex-chairman, Sigurdur Einarsson./blockquote>
UNQUOTE

So why don't we do the same?  

The Moscow News also mentioned inflation was sweeping many economies due to US printing trillions of new dollars which are worthless. They said the Tunisian President fleed taking 20% of the nation's gold reserves with him. He left all US dollars behind..  

[Vulcanl]

Doc,

This is a topic near and dear to my heart.  Thanks for posting this.  It is about time that someone starting holding these parasites to account.  The easiest way to clamp down is to get these mofos on prime time doing perp walks and having them become someone's girlfriend once inside.

"So why don't we do the same?" you ask?!?  Because these scumbags run the developed Western World, that's why...they're whooping it up at Davos as we 'speak,' (bending over for each other in turn, I am sure).

Our only weapon against these bastards is what we are doing now....raising awareness of what they have done to our once-proud civilization!

[sick of them]

Bankers have a lot to answer for. I am amazed that so many of them are still in employment and in receipt of undeserved bonuses.

[bankerman]

I am in fact a banker and I am right here in Singapore. I earn lots of money too, how do you feel about that? I got a bonus! I bet that really enrages you!

Anyway, I am right here in Singapore, as I said, so why not just try to hunt me down? Come on Vulcan and Dr Phil, hunt me down!

[Agent007]

They are all too busy persecuting agents!

[fareastjunebug]

I am in fact a banker and I am right here in Singapore. I earn lots of money too, how do you feel about that? I got a bonus! I bet that really enrages you!

Anyway, I am right here in Singapore, as I said, so why not just try to hunt me down? Come on Vulcan and Dr Phil, hunt me down!

No need to hunt you down. It's not the individuals that should be hunted unless they have breached policies or laws. It's the banks and the regulatory environment they work in - if you'd changed the players, you'd have gotten the same results. The regulations just need to be adjusted appropriately to prevent repeats. Not just for the banks, but the regulators also need some changing.

Some industries have come to the conclusion that self regulation, or at least self regulation that moves faster than the government, is better than government regulation. Apparently the banking industry doesn't feel it's needed.

I'm just curious how the salary structure has been maintained in the industry. It seems that there is little restriction on the supply of potential entrants, ie no medical or legal organization limiting entrance to the field. There is no real barrier to entry of entities in the industry if you include funds, etc (you just need a bag of money). And there is no shortage of bright and effective graduates willing to sell their souls. It's a mystery to me.

[Vulcanl]

bankerman,

This statement cuts right to the heart of the issue:

"...I earn lots of money too, how do you feel about that? I got a bonus! I bet that really enrages you!..."

It's fascinating...no one here thus far has raised the issue of how much bankers make - only you.  I personally do not begrudge anyone making money, so long as it has been done through honest work. 

My problem with bankers is the incredible arrogance in the face of the obvious cause of the current decrepit state of the West:  You will not even acknowledge that your actions caused massive (and possibly irreparable) damage.  You are blinded to all else by money, and money alone.  It guides all of your actions, it is your moral compass.  Nothing else matters but the lustful pursuit of wealth, at any cost to anyone or anything.

Such a mindless and empty pursuit is self-defeating in the long term.  Eventually you will kill the Goose that lays the Golden eggs (you may have already done so).

So for me, personally that is where my beef is with you: I was perfectly content to leave you to your own pursuit of happiness, but it was not enough for you (and never was going to be).   You had to bankrupt the entire Western system (and take the masses down with you) and now Asia is picking the near-dead carcass for whatever is left of value.

Are you happy now, banker?  Was it all worth it? 

[bankerman]

bankerman,

This statement cuts right to the heart of the issue:

"...I earn lots of money too, how do you feel about that? I got a bonus! I bet that really enrages you!..."

It's fascinating...no one here thus far has raised the issue of how much bankers make - only you.  I personally do not begrudge anyone making money, so long as it has been done through honest work. 

My problem with bankers is the incredible arrogance in the face of the obvious cause of the current decrepit state of the West:  You will not even acknowledge that your actions caused massive (and possibly irreparable) damage.  You are blinded to all else by money, and money alone.  It guides all of your actions, it is your moral compass.  Nothing else matters but the lustful pursuit of wealth, at any cost to anyone or anything.

Such a mindless and empty pursuit is self-defeating in the long term.  Eventually you will kill the Goose that lays the Golden eggs (you may have already done so).

So for me, personally that is where my beef is with you: I was perfectly content to leave you to your own pursuit of happiness, but it was not enough for you (and never was going to be).   You had to bankrupt the entire Western system (and take the masses down with you) and now Asia is picking the near-dead carcass for whatever is left of value.

Are you happy now, banker?  Was it all worth it? 

No, I am not happy yet. I think we should continue until even you, Vulcan, have been impoverished and thrown out of your HDB flat so that you are having to live outside in the streets like a feral animal. Then I will be happy.

\There is more for me to do.Yes, I need to line my own pockets, to earn tens of multiples of your meagre salary, but that isn't all. I also have an ideological vision. The crisis didn't go far enough, we have only just smelled blood.

And previously the role played by the bankers was no more than the greedy and smug little borrowers, the idiot regulators, the naive, stupid and complicit central bankers, the politicians rubbing their hands with glee at the rise in GDP due to the property price boom s they were encouraging, the corrupt mortgage brokers and the slimy journalists who cheered on the ever higher property prices. Don't worry, I don't expect your limited intellect to be able to comprehend the multi-dimensional nature of it all. You can stick to your "it was all them evil bankers"  fault!

No, this time around the bankers should have a more central role so that they may take full credit, especially as we are getting full blame anyway. So, no, I am not happy yet and my benchmark for success has become your personal ruin.

Toodle Pip Vulcan.

[Dr. Phil]

I am in fact a banker and I am right here in Singapore. I earn lots of money too, how do you feel about that? I got a bonus! I bet that really enrages you!

Anyway, I am right here in Singapore, as I said, so why not just try to hunt me down? Come on Vulcan and Dr Phil, hunt me down!

When I was young I had a TSB bank manager who was a credit to his profession.
He limited my mortgage to 3x my annual income and advised me wisely.
He insisted both me and my ex-wife were insured to protect the home in the event one of us died and kept a close eye on our arrangements including who we hired to survey the property. And for years after he gave us wise counsel until he was fired and a young graduate arrived throwing plastic cards in the faces of all of his "customers".
At that time, we "customers" actually owned the Trustee Savings Bank until the hoard in the boardroom changed the rules and sold it, making themselves very rich. A familiar story?  

Mr Bankman, you may work in a bank but you are not a bank manager or banker; you are a gambler.

And I do not believe in limiting any man's or woman's upper limit of remuneration. If they can make a billion in one year good luck to them.

However the bonus must be made from real profits honestly and genuinely earned, not pretend or virtual profits from prices raised by a cabal of disorderly insiders out of control.  

We do need regulation. Specifically, high street savings MUST NEVER be used by investment banks to gamble away. If they use their own money, I am sure the reality of catastrophe will curtail their excesses and produce more sober investments and fewer mindless gambles. And if the bank loses, it ends there...and the high street bank continues with savings intact.

We see brave people in Tunisia and now Egypt standing up, not just for freedom and opportunity but to end a privileged, authoritarian, repressive, unaccountable regime. We must summon the same courage and deal with our banking system...our political masters will not.

In UK we are now seeing the UK economy as it really is. The overwhelmingly bad news is "sweetened" by encouraging reports of increasing manufacturing output?  
What manufacturing do we have or have we had in UK since Maggie (God Bless Her) introduced a service economy?  

Property prices in UK have fallen over past months more than over the past 15 years and this is now greeted as positive news (rising property prices formerly indicated a robust economy) because it reduces inflation!  
Isn't property the greatest domestic investment and cost of all?  
  
The terrible legacy of bankers' fraudulent activities remains with us today. Its fast becoming a a real issue; its called negative equity.

[Nothing new]

"And previously the role played by the bankers was no more than the greedy and smug little borrowers, the idiot regulators, the naive, stupid and complicit central bankers, the politicians rubbing their hands with glee at the rise in GDP due to the property price boom s they were encouraging, the corrupt mortgage brokers and the slimy journalists who cheered on the ever higher property prices. Don't worry, I don't expect your limited intellect to be able to comprehend the multi-dimensional nature of it all. You can stick to your "it was all them evil bankers"  fault!"

in what you said. It's a matter of degree over the centuries. Looks like the central bankers will print their way out of the problem and knock a few zeros out later on. The more the fall the more worthless money is created..

[serves you right]

I am in fact a banker and I am right here in Singapore. I earn lots of money too, how do you feel about that? I got a bonus! I bet that really enrages you!

Anyway, I am right here in Singapore, as I said, so why not just try to hunt me down? Come on Vulcan and Dr Phil, hunt me down!

It does enrage me. Very much. Bankers dont deserve bonuses. Period.

[gram]

I really believe that there are people who enjoy profiting while at the same time causing destruction. It's a way of basically showing the finger to the system in place and laughing all the way to the bank at the same time. There could be a lot of such people around.

[bankerman]

I really believe that there are people who enjoy profiting while at the same time causing destruction. It's a way of basically showing the finger to the system in place and laughing all the way to the bank at the same time. There could be a lot of such people around.

Then you should report your suspicions to the authorities! These terrible people, the evil bankers conspiring to bring down the world, are dangerous and must be stopped! Go, do the right thing!

[Bankermann aka clown]

Bankermann, you are nothing but a pathetic litte creature. Your absurd way of thinking and justifying that you deserve, that you are entitled has made you a shallow buffoon.

[ooohoooh]

Bankermann, you are nothing but a pathetic litte creature. Your absurd way of thinking and justifying that you deserve, that you are entitled has made you a shallow buffoon.

I sense a lot of jealousy on this thread! I have a suggestion though...if you can't beat them then join them! If, that is, they will have you....are you good enough?