Geography Archives: Iceland

  • Securing Disaster in Haiti

    Nine days after the devastating earthquake that struck Haiti on 12 January 2010, it’s now clear that the initial phase of the U.S.-led relief operation has conformed to the three fundamental tendencies that have shaped the more general course of the island’s recent history.  It has adopted military priorities and strategies.  It has sidelined Haiti’s […]

  • Are Shorter Work Hours Good for the Environment?  A Comparison of U.S. and European Energy Consumption

    Variation in Work Hours among Countries It is well known that Europe lags behind the United States in terms of GDP per capita.  However, it is less well known that European workers in a number of countries are nearly as productive, and in some cases more productive, than their American counterparts.  As seen in Table […]

  • IMF: Back from the Dead

    The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has definitely had a very good crisis.  Just over a year ago, it was an institution on life support: ignored by most developing countries; derided for its failure to predict most crises in emerging markets and its often counterproductive responses to such crises; even called to book by its auditors […]

  • A “People First” Strategy: Credit Cannot Flow When There Are No Creditworthy Borrowers or Profitable Projects

    In 1930, John Maynard Keynes wrote: “The world has been slow to realise that we are living this year in the shadow of one of the greatest economic catastrophes of modern history.”  Today, as then, we are in the shadow of catastrophe.  Today, as then, our thinking is slow.  We need to come to grips […]

  • France: Impressive Strikes and Demonstrations on 19 March 2009

    Thursday, 19 March 2009 The new day of united action is incontestably a great success.  On the 19th of March, there were more strikes, more demonstrations, and many more demonstrators than there were on the 29th of January, which was an exceptional mobilization itself. 3 Million Demonstrators at 219 Demos1 For employment, purchasing power, and […]

  • Interview of John Bellamy Foster on The Great Financial Crisis

    John Bellamy Foster is editor of Monthly Review and professor of sociology at the University of Oregon.  He is the coauthor with Fred Magdoff of The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences, recently published by Monthly Review Press. MW: Do you think that the American people have been misled into believing that the current financial […]

  • The Global Collapse: a Non-orthodox View

    This is the longer version of an essay by the author released by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) on 6 February 2009. Week after week, we see the global economy contracting at a pace worse than predicted by the gloomiest analysts.  We are now, it is clear, in no ordinary recession but are headed for […]

  • Global Crisis Fuels Protests

    As economists in the US warn against the potential for double-digit unemployment, much of the world is already experiencing that reality.  In Spain, 200,000 workers lost their jobs in January alone, the most for a single month on record, pushing that country’s unemployment rate to over 14%.  Over 9% of workers in the Republic of […]

  • Iceland Gets New Government

    The Geir Haarde government of Iceland became the first in the world to fall in the wake of the financial meltdown.  Now, Iceland has a provisional coalition government, headed by the world’s first lesbian prime minister, Johanna Sigurdardottit of the Social Democratic Alliance.  Left-Green Movement Chairman Steingrimur J. Sigfusson is reportedly now appointed Minister of […]

  • Iceland: The Fall of the Neoliberal Government

    First, Prime Minister Geir Haarde.  Then, Commerce Minister Bjorgvin Sigurdsson.  Now, Jónas Fr. Jónsson, director of the Financial Supervisory Authority (FME), and the entire FME board.  Ministers and officials are quitting one by one, unable to withstand the wrath of the people of Iceland demanding their immediate resignation.  Haarde’s proposal that new elections be held […]

  • The Coronation of the New Emperor

    Around the world hundreds of millions of people witnessed the inauguration of the 44th president of the United States (US), or rather the coronation of the new “emperor.”  Even at the bottom tip of Africa, it was difficult to escape the scenes of imperial grandeur that beamed across television sets.  As was the case with […]

  • Iceland: Storming the Althingi

    On 20 January 2009, parliament in Iceland resumed after the holidays.  But no business as usual for the Icelandic politicians any more.  People began to besiege the parliament building, demanding early elections and not taking “No” for an answer.  Writing for the Guardian today, Eirikur Bergmann described the political atmosphere in Iceland thus: “While Barack […]

  • Icelanders Protest, Clash with Police

    Thousands of Icelanders protested in Reykjavik on Saturday, demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Geir Haarde and Central Bank Governor David Oddsson, for bankrupting their country.  A group of protesters also stormed the city’s central police station to release one of the protesters arrested the day before. ITN News, 23 November 2008

  • Icelanders Are NOT Terrorists

    Gordon Brown unjustifiably used the Anti-terrorism, Crime and Security Act of 2001 against the people of Iceland for his own short-term political gain.  This has turned a grave situation into a national disaster, affecting families in both Iceland and the United Kingdom.  Help us avert greater damage by signing this petition now. On Wednesday October […]

  • Postscript to “The Financialization of Capital and the Crisis” (Monthly Review, April 2008)

    Six months ago the United States was already deep in a financial crisis — the roots of which were explained in this article.   Yet, the conditions now are several orders of magnitude worse and are affecting the entire world.  We are clearly in the midst of one of the great crises in the history […]

  • The Global Financial Crisis: Will South Africa Be Unscathed?

    For the last several months, headlines about the global financial crisis have regularly made the front pages of international newspapers.  Over this period, Europe and the US have come to realise that corporations are facing the worst economic crisis since the 1929 crash.  In South Africa, however, articles on the global crisis have tended to […]

  • On the Financial Crisis of Iceland

    The current financial crisis in Iceland is of course part of and connected to the international upheaval, but it also has its domestic roots.  To put it briefly, for more than 17 years, we Icelanders have had a right-wing government led by the right-wing Independence Party in coalition with social democratic or center parties.  The […]

  • The Problem Is Capitalism, Not Just the Banks

    Don’t panic!  That’s the panicked cry of governments and central bankers around the world.  Meanwhile their behaviour shows that they expect a very, very deep recession. After repetition over more than a quarter of century — by mainstream economists, ministers, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund — neo-liberal platitudes have been forgotten.  Today, we […]

  • World Against War Conference

      “O there are times, we must confess To harboring a whim — we Like to picture old Karl Marx Sliding down our chimney” — Susie Day“Help fund the good fight.   By contributing to MR, you help reinforce the left and reclaim the future.” — Richard D. Vogel “To do my part, I just […]

  • Same-Sex Love in India: Open Letters against Section 377

    To the Government of India, Members of the Judiciary, and All Citizens, To build a truly democratic and plural India, we must collectively fight against laws and policies that abuse human rights and limit fundamental freedoms. This is why we, concerned Indian citizens and people of Indian origin, support the overturning of Section 377 of […]