Iceland now

[BlasterBates]

Iceland now


....Britain tomorrow?

Will all those Anglo-Saxon descendants be returning home?

[AtW]

They can make money by renting out old USA military base to Putin, would be rather ironic for a founding NATO member to do so but seems like a way out for them.

[Turion]

They can make money by renting out old USA military base to Putin, would be rather ironic for a founding NATO member to do so but seems like a way out for them.

Russian planes are too old and rusty to make it to Iceland. In conventional warfare they are only really a threat to tiny states like Georgia.

[AtW]

Russian planes are too old and rusty to make it to Iceland.

They can be based there, does not even matter if they don't take off - there are still few left that can fly, until one of them crashes due to hardware failure.

[Bagpuss]

I'd have thought Iceland would be very busy this time of year. Cheapo party bites and frozen roasties mmmmmmmmmmmmm

[OwlHoot]

I must admit one thing puzzles me when I hear statements like "X's economy will shrink 0.5 percent next year" quoted as if the end of the world is nigh.

Seeing as most economies have been growing like topsy at 3% compounded for several years, a slight contraction would on the face of it only put them back where they were a few months ago, which doesn't seem that serious a setback.

I suppose there is the deflationary spiral aspect to consider though, in that once an economy starts contracting the process tends to snowball.

[Mich the Tester]

I must admit one thing puzzles me when I hear statements like "X's economy will shrink 0.5 percent next year" quoted as if the end of the world is nigh.

Seeing as most economies have been growing like topsy at 3% compounded for several years, a slight contraction would on the face of it only put them back where they were a few months ago, which doesn't seem that serious a setback.

I suppose there is the deflationary spiral aspect to consider though, in that once an economy starts contracting the process tends to snowball.

You have a good point. Here in the Netherlands, as in much of Europe, we have an ageing population, a shrinking workforce, and huge skill shortages; if the economy achieves zero growth, then average standard of living will actually rise for those in employment, especially seeing as taxes are falling. Of course, the growth, or lack of it, isn’t so equally distributed (and I’m not suggesting it should be), but it seems to me that we’ve become used to unrealistic expectations; our mature economies can’t grow at 3 or 4% per year without doing something seriously unsustainable, like building a mountain of debt or fooking our own living environment. If our economies grow at about 1% each year, that’s more than enough to provide a good life for all of us. We get ourselves into this mess time and time again by wanting to much too quickly.

[_V_]

You have a good point. Here in the Netherlands, as in much of Europe, we have an ageing population, a shrinking workforce, and huge skill shortages; .

You need more immigrants then. Works for us.

[Mich the Tester]

You need more immigrants then. Works for us.

Yes, but try telling the locals

[OwlHoot]

I'd be happy to work there, but every advert I've ever seen for a contract stipulates "only fluent Dutch speakers need apply", which is a diplomatic way of saying "no foreigners".

ISTR we discussed this a year or two ago, and people who had contracted in Holland were pretty much agreed that native Dutch people actually hate foreigners who can speak Dutch! Don't recall why though.