U.S. Credit Crisis Adds to Gloom in Arctic Norway

Source: New York Times

NARVIK, Norway, Nov. 30 — At this time of year, the sun does not rise at all this far north of the Arctic Circle. But Karen Margrethe Kuvaas says she has not been able to sleep well for days.

What is keeping her awake are the far-reaching ripple effects of the troubled housing market in sunny Florida, California and other parts of the United States.

Ms. Kuvaas is the mayor of Narvik, a remote seaport where the season’s perpetual gloom deepened even further in recent days after news that the town — along with three other Norwegian municipalities — had lost about $64 million, and potentially much more, in complex securities investments that went sour.

snip...

Tiny specks on the map, these Norwegian towns are links in a chain of misery that stretches from insolvent homeowners in California to the state treasury of Maine, and from regional banks in Germany to the mightiest names on Wall Street. Citigroup, among the hardest hit, created the investments bought by the towns through a Norwegian broker.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/world/europe/02norway.html

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Lesson for the world. Stay far away from us.

;)

Maybe we ought to work together; or will that bring cries of racism and hatred?

(I still don't know what is "globalization", as "migration" seems to be a better word and nothing adds up apart from the Fed dropping rates to raise the market, which in turn causes investors to freak over the dollar so they sell... vicious circle, catch-22, the type of 69 you don't want mommy to know, you name it...)

A straight up Bushie Mass-Multiple Felony. Maybe the biggest of all.

The entire nation is upside-down.

Grand Larceny is now the Noblest chairtyu, in the upside-down and tyrannized Bush-Occupied Imperial Amerika.

Put a leash on the Gambling addicts buying this crap and tax hedge funds and futures speculators to the point they HAVE to stop wrecking and looting the economy..

the Clinton 'prosperity' was due to taxing the kind of people this administration lets skim 40 cents off every gasoline dollar.. gas would cost $1.80 a gallon if speculators weren't allowed to loot

caught up in a investment scheme gone bad.

county in CA during Poppy Bu$hit.. the mathematical formula was so complex it couldn't by translated by the courts..

As usual, the "mayor of Narvik" tries to blame the huckster that sold them on the idea they could get rich by buying into a derivitave fund. They should have had someone with a smattering of knowledge making decisions about where to park their money.

This is especially rank:

Citigroup’s term sheet did provide information on risks, but Narvik got a copy only after it had signed the agreement.

and this:

Even if the Norwegian prospectus had been complete, it is not certain that Narvik would have shunned the investment. Ms. Kuvaas, for one, said she did not read the prospectus before voting to authorize it

In other words, they had buffons in charge of their treasury. And now they're "shocked" that they were scammed. HELLO?

PSPS

It is more to it then you believe. Terra, the company who was giving Narvik commune the advise withhold information, in fact for many year, and then the rest is history as it says.. You can get a better information in the English pages on www.aftenposten.no.

It have been all over the news for sometime here in Norway, and I doubt we are getting the last of things to come... I don't know what Will happened in the end, but this is a ugly history who some paprtisans have not doing their job..

But as a old saying is going.. Is is to goo to be true, then it possibility is there it is to good to be true.. And this was the case here.. It was to good to be true in the long run...

Bad it would get over the people who maybe ned it mutch, the poor, out of luck, and the elderly who may not get a nursery home... Not a public one..

But our "socialistic" system is maybe to scary for a american :sarcasm:

other countries.

onehandle

Or maybe be more carefully when american banks trye to get "easy money" to the rest of the world. And then when the money is not there anymore... Its bad times ahead...

But it is always some who are going to get the money some way and I doubt that the government, when it come to it Will make Narvik a broken city.. We can afford it but I really believe it Will be a hard work to get the money back... Really hard time and then they may never get the whole thing back.. Terra was "promising" 150.000.000 NKR to alle the communes involved if they just want to take the case out of curt.. They don't and now it can go to court... The Company who was doing the dealing are bankrupt, and almost 80 people are hitting the street... Just before Christmas and all.. Good work the "New american century" have made for us as I say it::sarcasm:

In the end I hope that the communes in Norway had learned someting about "global trade" and that they don't want to be a part of it anymore.. Better to have the money in the bank, then to loose it on Wall Street...

Diclotican

Sorry my bad engelish, not my native language

Speculative investments have upside and downside.

Less risk = less upside potential.

More risk = more upside potential.

Who exactly held a gun to their heads in Norway and made them allocate their investments that way? Grown-ups take responsibility for their actions, and acknowledge that we live in an unfair and unpredictable world.

as well as something to do with not understanding that risk increases enormously when you are seeking bigger returns than long-term norms.

There have been snake-oil salesmen as long as there has been money, but greed has a way of blinding us when someone promises the moon. I speak from experience.

I feel bad for anyone who loses $$, and especially for these people. I hope that publicity about their plight can help others make better choices.

Faith in America is lost.

should have saved their money for a country with a stable economy, like China or India.