When building from the ruins of capitalism can we please make sure the shenanigans at the Icelandic banks do not repeat themselves? Kaupthing let its key staff borrow money to buy shares in the bank. The amounts were astronomical, at one point the staff was supposed to own almost 10% of the bank. The trouble [...]

Shortly after the crash in October, news came from Kaupthing that key employees had just been relieved of their liabilities towards loans they’d been granted to buy shares in the bank. That decision was made by the bank’s management, with the approval of the bank’s head lawyer, Helgi Sigurdsson. Now, DV.is has revealed the amounts [...]

What is Jon Asgeir Johannesson up to next? After burning all the bridges and retail brands he could in the UK, he appears to be searching for a fashion house in NYC to invest in. Potential fellow shareholders beware. Hold on to your hats and cash.

The word is that people are afraid that Iceland and Icelandic businesses might be heading for the “junk bond” pile at the major ratings agencies, Fitch, Moody’s etc. I honestly don’t think that matters all that much. Fitch, Moody’s and their ilk should review their ratings for Iceland and the major US banks in the [...]

Mishkin has been a consultant to the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, as well as to numerous central banks throughout the world. He was also a member of the International Advisory Board to the Financial Supervisory Service of South Korea and an adviser to the Institute for Monetary and [...]

You should know that in the lovely leftist country of Iceland, some are more equal than others. Johanna Sigurdardottir, Steingrimur J. Sigfusson and Gylfi Magnusson are so determined not to treat all debtors equally that currently you can only get real solutions at the banks if you know someone high up. If you don’t then [...]

And all the while unemployment and the fear of it looms, leaving many too harried and distracted to apply pressure on the governing class. What a savage irony it would be if a system whose intrinsic failings caused these fiascos were to be saved by default, as people struggle to simply weather the misery those [...]

Professor Thorvaldur Gylfason was one of those who sounded the alarm bells all along about the corrupt business and political elites in Iceland. His latest column for Frettabladid carries an interesting undertone, “The rector of Reykjavik University, has described in staff meetings at the school how she managed to get the school’s funds into a [...]

The offices of a firm of lawyers, Logos, and a house belonging to its chief executive, Hannes Smarason, have been raided by police looking into the sales and re-sales of Sterling Airlines, a Danish carrier that failed last year. The company’s collapse in October with debts exceeding £1bn was the first domino to fall in [...]

Eva Joly interviewed last week by Kastljos. In english.