REYKJAVIK, Iceland â Iceland's coalition government collapsed Monday, leaving the island nation in political turmoil amid a financial crisis that has pummeled its economy and required an international bailout to keep the country afloat. Haarde, who has been prime minister since 2006, said he would officially inform the country's president later Monday that the government had collapsed. Iceland has been mired in crisis since the collapse of the country's banks under the weight of debts amassed during years of rapid expansion. Inflation and unemployment have soared, and the krona currency has plummeted. Haarde's government has nationalized banks and negotiated about $10 billion in loans from the IMF and individual countries. The country's commerce minister, Bjorgvin Sigurdsson, quit on Sunday citing the pressures of the economic collapse. Sigurdsson said Icelanders had lost trust in their political leadership. Thousands have joined noisy daily protests in the last week over soaring unemployment and rising prices. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WASHINGTON (AP) -- It's already been a lousy year for workers less than a month into 2009 and there's no relief in sight. Tens of thousands of fresh layoffs were announced Monday and more companies are expected to cut payrolls in the months ahead. A new survey by the National Association for Business Economics depicts the worst business conditions in the U.S. since the report's inception in 1982. Thirty-nine percent of NABE's forecasters predicted job reductions through attrition or "significant" layoffs over the next six months, up from 32 percent in the previous survey in October. The recession, which started in December 2007, and is expected to stretch into this year, has been a job killer. The economy lost 2.6 million jobs last year, the most since 1945. The unemployment rate jumped to 7.2 percent in December, the highest in 16 years, and is expected to keep climbing. "Job losses accelerated in the fourth quarter, and the employment outlook for the next six months has weakened further," said Sara Johnson, NABE's lead analyst on the survey and an economist at IHS Global Insight. Thousands more jobs cuts were announced Monday. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc., which is buying rival drugmaker Wyeth in a $68 billion deal, and Sprint Nextel Corp., the country's third-largest wireless provider, said they each will slash 8,000 jobs. Home Depot Inc., the biggest home improvement retailer in the U.S., will get rid of 7,000 jobs, and General Motors Corp. said it will cut 2,000 jobs at plants in Michigan and Ohio due to slow sales. Caterpillar Inc., the world's largest maker of mining and construction equipment, announced 5,000 new layoffs on top of several earlier actions. The latest cuts of support and management employees will be made globally by the end of March. An additional 2,500 workers already have accepted buyout offers, and ties have been severed with about 8,000 contract workers worldwide. In addition, about 4,000 full-time factory workers already have been let go. Just last week, Microsoft Corp. said it will slash up to 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months. Intel Corp. said it will cut up to 6,000 manufacturing jobs and United Airlines parent UAL Corp. said it would get rid of 1,000 jobs, on top of 1,500 axed late last year. Also in the survey, 52 percent said they expected gross domestic product to fall by more than 1 percent this year. GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced within the U.S. and is the best barometer of the country's economic fitness. The last time GDP fell for a full year was in 1991, a tiny 0.2 percent dip. The economy shrank by 1.9 percent in 1982, when the country was suffering through a severe recession. Forecasters have grown more pessimistic about the outlook. In the October survey, no forecaster thought GDP would fall by more than 1 percent. In terms of business conditions, more reported customer demand dropping, capital spending reductions and shrinking profit margins. Altogether the NABE report "depicts the worst business conditions since the survey began in 1982, confirming that the U.S. recession deepened in the fourth quarter of 2008," Johnson said. Many analysts predict the economy will have contracted at a pace of 5.4 percent in the fourth quarter when the government releases that report on Friday.
I am assuming your not from the U.S. We don't have gay parliamentary government coalitions, that collapse every time the population has a brain fart. We hold elections for the executive and legislative branch of governments. The only way the executive branch would collapse, is if the legislative branch pursues impeachment. While i have low expectations for the Obama presidency, even I would be shocked if his own party impeached him in the next 4 years. He would need to be caught on a live webcam with a 9 year old thai boy, doing lines of coke of his ass,while .pissing on the ashes of a dead American soldier, and pledging his allegiance to Al'Qeada. Even then the odds are 50-50
Lol. I say more like a 20% chance of impeachment. Obama is God and can do no wrong. Criticize him at your own risk.
And I would need proof that its Obama in the video. I would need him to hold up two forms of government ID while having his grandmother confirm it is him
That's a great one - reminds me of a Simpson's episode where Lisa is seeing her future, and has warned her finance about her family. The dialog goes like this: Lisa: [laughing nervously] Just a couple more blocks to my house! Hugh: Lisa, darling, don't worry: I'm sure I'll get along with your family. You've so thoroughly prepared me for the worst. As long as they're not squatting in a ditch poking berries up their noses... Lisa: [breathing heavily] And if they are? JJacksET4