Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Iceland, Russia, China... an evolving golden braid
Iceland has secured a four thousand million Euro loan from Russia to prop up its foundering economy. Talk of turn-ups for the books. Way back in 1991 when Lithuania unilaterally declared independence from the USSR Iceland was the only nation on earth to offer Lithuania recognition. It got very hostile economic attention from the Soviet authorities, and those of us working for Baltics freedom ran a ‘buy Icelandic’ campaign to show our support and help cushion Iceland’s economy.
What kind of political leverage will the Russian heirs to the USSR global position have for this 2008 financial initiative? I still have very warm feelings for Iceland so really concerned at everything that is going on.
Elsewhere I noted rather startling remark by Robert Peston (BBC business correspondent) that China has such substantial reserves it could simply buy up the entire United States banking industry. Can’t find the link for this statement, nor any justifying analysis, so would be grateful for any pointers.
I suspect China is too politically astute to walk into the political firestorm that would result from such a takeover. But ‘interesting times’ as the Chinese proverb threatens.
What kind of political leverage will the Russian heirs to the USSR global position have for this 2008 financial initiative? I still have very warm feelings for Iceland so really concerned at everything that is going on.
Elsewhere I noted rather startling remark by Robert Peston (BBC business correspondent) that China has such substantial reserves it could simply buy up the entire United States banking industry. Can’t find the link for this statement, nor any justifying analysis, so would be grateful for any pointers.
I suspect China is too politically astute to walk into the political firestorm that would result from such a takeover. But ‘interesting times’ as the Chinese proverb threatens.
Labels: China, Economy, Iceland, Russia
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On today's 'Daily Politics' programme (BBC2) there was the mention of an old US base that may be offered for use to Russia in Iceland...
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