Browsing Category »Editorial«
→ July 27, 2011
Anders Breivik´s obviously cares deeply about his legacy. He appears hopeful that his actions will spur a Western revolution against muslims, feminists, atheists and left wing liberals shaping our world to his mind. It might turn out otherwise. With Breivik having reminded us that muslims are not Europe´s chief source of terrorism, Norway having reminded [...]
→ July 26, 2011
The first shock of the 2008 economic crisis encouraged Iceland to apply for EU membership, but its social effects and local political dispute appears to be turning the tide towards a rejection in a national referendum. The social effects of the crisis appear to manifest themselves in fear and distrust of local individuals and organizations [...]
→ June 30, 2010
The Supreme Court of Iceland‘s ruling has thrown the Icelandic household debt pickle into an almighty pickle-feast. The Court ruled that the currency loans which many Icelandic housholds had borrowed at their chosen financial institution for car loans and mortgages were illegal. According to Icelandic law, it is illegal to tie loan contracts to indexes [...]
→ June 28, 2010
Are the ghosts of the past supposed to determine Iceland’s future? In the Special Investigation Report, former Morgunbladid editor Styrmir Gunnarsson says that Iceland has been a “disgusting society”. “I have followed this for fifty years. This is a disgusting society, it is all disgusting. There are no principles, there are no ideologies, there is [...]
→ January 6, 2010
So what is the national referendum going to be about? According to some Facebook statuses and discussions you get the sense that too many people think that the president’s veto means that Iceland has an option on whether to pay the IceSave debt or not. If only things were that simple. The whole affair has [...]
→ November 22, 2009
So I promised I’d explain the reason why the government’s current “solutions” for the household debt in Iceland are useless. A regular reader to this site, Vilhjalm A. has pointed out the unique situation home-owners in Iceland are facing because of the consumer price indexation attached to all mortgages in ISK: An unnormal country In normal countries [...]
→ October 23, 2009
On October 25th last year, I wrote the first EDA piece called Connecting the Dots Part I. After so many words, so many entries, its simplicity is striking; David Oddson used to be prime minister with Geir Haarde the current prime minister as financial minister representing the Independent Party where Kjartan Gunnarsson used to be [...]
→ October 5, 2009
Who’s got a seat at the table when the government decides how to tackle household debt? Is it you? No, it is a group of middle aged economists and officials whose livelyhood has been dependent on looking out for the interests of industries and corporations. Then they drive off in their SUV’s to their comfortable [...]
→ October 1, 2009
Eva Joly is back in Iceland today. A few things for her to consider: 1) Don‘t trust anyone in Iceland. Even the people you are working for. We are all too interconnected. Everyone has an agenda. Be open for sources that don‘t want to go through the filter around you. Set up a simple website [...]
→ September 4, 2009
I’ve thought a lot about theory economist Gudmundur Olafsson’s attempts to divert the public’s attention from the injustice of price-indexation of loans. He uses the analogy of when a man borrows ten horses from him, he expects ten horses back. He makes no mention of the responsibility bestowed upon him as the lender to provide [...]
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