Iceland to Adopt Canadian Dollars as Currency?

[Barrister]

They have Buddy from Kids in the Hall  as their queen.



There is my quota of Canadian content for this month Beeb.

Didn't someone tell you?  We increased your quote.  You need to throw in at least one CBC Newsworld or CFL reference before the month is out.

[Ed Anger]

They have Buddy from Kids in the Hall  as their queen.



There is my quota of Canadian content for this month Beeb.

Didn't someone tell you?  We increased your quote.  You need to throw in at least one CBC Newsworld or CFL reference before the month is out.

Evan Solomon is a douchebag.

[Barrister]

There is my quota of Canadian content for this month Beeb.

Didn't someone tell you?  We increased your quote.  You need to throw in at least one CBC Newsworld or CFL reference before the month is out.

Evan Solomon is a douchebag.

That he is, my friend.  That he is.

[Ed Anger]

I need to read MacLeans to refill my Canadian current events knowledge banks. But then I'd have to go to a homeless shelter library to find one.

[Neil]

I need to read MacLeans to refill my Canadian current events knowledge banks. But then I'd have to go to a homeless shelter library to find one.

Why would an Ohio library or homeless shelter carry Macleans?  Surely there can't be much interest in Jesusland about prime ministers, rouges and Boxing Day?

[Ed Anger]

I need to read MacLeans to refill my Canadian current events knowledge banks. But then I'd have to go to a homeless shelter library to find one.

Why would an Ohio library or homeless shelter carry Macleans?  Surely there can't be much interest in Jesusland about prime ministers, rouges and Boxing Day?

The Greene county library system carried in the 90's. Don't know about now, as libraries are full of bums taking shits in the water fountains. ITS A BIDET.

[Neil]

Can't you just send vagrants to work camps?

[Ed Anger]

Can't you just send vagrants to work camps?

I wish. 

[Camerus]

So to those who know anything about Icelandic politics - does this shit actually have legs, or is it just grandstanding of some kind?

http://news.nationalpost.com/2012/05/15/iceland-canadian-loonie/

If Iceland adopts the loonie, Greenland could soon follow: economist

Tristin Hopper  May 15, 2012 – 7:47 PM ET | Last Updated: May 15, 2012 7:48 PM ET
REUTERS/Mark Blinch; EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images

REUTERS/Mark Blinch; EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images

To restart an icy economy and free its citizens from strict Soviet-style money controls, all Iceland needs is a single planeload of Canadian dollars, a pair of Iceland economists told a packed Bay Street conference room Monday afternoon.

"It would fit nicely in a small plane, we just have to make sure it doesn't get lost on the way," said Heidar Gudjonsson, an investment manager and the chairman of Iceland's Centre for Social and Economic Research.

Mr. Gudjonsson, along with University of Iceland finance professor Ársæll Valfells, were in Toronto on Tuesday to make the first pitch to a Canadian audience on a unorthodox proposal to to pull the debt-ridden Nordic state from recession by abandoning the Icelandic krona for the Canadian dollar.
Related

    Heidar Gudjonsson: Iceland needs our loonie

    Is Iceland loonie to start using Canada's currency?

    Loonie support grows in Iceland as 70% back adopting Canadian currency

Iceland was one of hardest hit by the 2008 financial collapse, rendering its currency effectively worthless. To prevent wealth from fleeing the country, Icelanders are on their fourth year of living under strict capital controls. International investment is banned, and when Mr. Gudjonsson left Reykjavik for Canada, he said he was only allowed to withdraw $2,570 for travel expenses. "The controls are stricter than they were in Eastern Europe under Communism," said Mr. Gudjonsson.
'If you look at it from a strategic perspective, instead of one country at the Arctic Council using the Canadian dollar, you'd have three'

Icelanders are united on the need to ditch the krona. However, the country's reigning Social Democrats want the Euro, while the opposition Progressive Party has been pushing for the Canadian dollar since last summer. As resource economies, Canada and Iceland's economic cycles are more likely to be in sync, loonie proponents argue. Also, Canada is home to about 200,000 people of Icelandic descent, more than anywhere else in the world. "I see that connection helping the public in Iceland accepting a new currency," said Mr. Gudjonsson.

So far, the loonie appears to be winning. A March Gallup poll showed public approval for the loonie easily pulling ahead of the U.S. dollar, the euro and the Norwegian krone.

The mechanics of the swap would be the easy part. A party of Icelanders officials would simply fly to a Canadian bank and arrange a $300-million withdrawal. The final pile of multicoloured bills — no larger than two photocopiers — would then be shipped across the North Atlantic and loaded into ATMs and bank vaults over a weekend. (While there is far more than $300-million in the Icelandic money system, the country currently only has $300-million worth of krona coins and bills in circulation.)

Short of imposing its own Iceland-style currency controls, the Bank of Canada has no choice in the matter. "We will do it unilaterally without asking," said Mr. Valfells. "It's better to ask for forgiveness than permission."

In the resource-rich Arctic, Mr. Gudjonsson said, a Canada-Iceland currency union could be the cornerstone of a Canadian-led polar juggernaut. With Iceland on the loonie, Greenland — which only recently declared independence from Denmark — could soon follow, he said.
'It would fit nicely in a small plane, we just have to make sure it doesn't get lost on the way'

"If you look at it from a strategic perspective, instead of one country at the Arctic Council using the Canadian dollar, you'd have three," Mr. Gudjonsson.

Canada would also stand to make a tidy profit through seigniorage, the revenue a government earns by selling coins and bills into the money system. Per year, Iceland's currency withdrawals could pull in "$15- to $20-million per year" for the Canadian government, said Mr. Gudjonsson.

[Tonitrus]

I bet this is a Canadian plot to avenge Hans Island.

[Zoupa]

That's pretty cool.

[MadImmortalMan]

Per year, Iceland's currency withdrawals could pull in "$15- to $20-million per year" for the Canadian government

[Camerus]

Per year, Iceland's currency withdrawals could pull in "$15- to $20-million per year" for the Canadian government

It could cover Bev Oda's expense account each year.

[Barrister]

I continue to wonder - would they use the same old bills and coins with the Queen and Prime Ministers they've never heard of, or would they print special Icelandic bills and coins (which are interchangeable with the regular Canadian bucks)?

[jimmy olsen]

I continue to wonder - would they use the same old bills and coins with the Queen and Prime Ministers they've never heard of, or would they print special Icelandic bills and coins (which are interchangeable with the regular Canadian bucks)?

School children in Korea know the Queen, I'm gonna guess that most folks in Iceland do too.