UPDATE 1-Iceland puts former PM on trial over crisis

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) - Iceland's former prime minister Geir Haarde went on trial on Monday for failing to prevent the island nation's 2008 financial crash, the only global political leader to face prosecution over the wider crisis which engulfed the world economy.

Iceland's top three banks all collapsed in late 2008 after years of debt-fuelled expansion. The country of just 320,000 people was forced to borrow around $10 billion from the International Monetary Fund and other lenders.

Parliament voted in 2010 to prosecute Haarde over the crisis at a special court of impeachment set up in 1905, which has so far never been used. He denies the charges.

"None of us realised at the time that there was something fishy within the banking system itself, as now appears to have been the case," Haarde told the court in opening questions from a special prosecutor investigating crimes linked to the crisis.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/05/iceland-trial-idUSL5E8E595720120305

[klook]

1. It's ridiculous to pin this on one guy

He's culpable, but so are many other Icelanders. Michael Lewis's book Boomerang has a good history of that situation.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

2. It's a good start.

[cstanleytech]

3. Depends on how you define "good". Its good for example

if he knew about the stuff and or suspected it and did nothing because he stood to lose $ if he did, its bad however if he was just a total clueless schmuck and just didnt realize that there was a potential problem coming up.

[AnotherMcIntosh]

5. If the has a history of claiming that he is just a clueless smuck,

then maybe that will satisfy some.

[Katashi_itto]

4. Hang him as Max Keiser often says. Its a start.