Not surprisingly, the exodus has been quiet so far. Around 1.000 Icelanders have so far left for Norway according to Eures. That would be the equivalent of 1 million Americans leaving for Canada. Expect the number of people to defect will increase once winter bites. It seems like many are growing weary of the country. [...]

Statistics paint the remarkable fiscal challenge Iceland’s people face. The central bank estimates that about 40,000 of the country’s 100,000 households took out loans to buy automobiles denominated in foreign currencies, chiefly the Japanese yen and Swiss franc. Similarly, about 80,000 Icelandic households have mortgages—all of them with payments either directly linked to inflation or, [...]

“Definitely we would come to the rescue of a bank – definitely. “The banking system in Iceland is very large compared to the economy, but still we think we can maintain the problem because the balance sheet of the bank is very good.” “They have not been involved in sub-prime or buying housing debts from [...]

The government is squeezing every last drop out of its people and gasoline is no exception. Yesterday Olis raised its prices 12,50 ISK pr/l because of the new petroleum tax. So the temporary relief earlier this year when you could get gas for 130-140 ISK pr/l is now gone. I suggest a punching bag to [...]

ABC with their six minute take on the Icelandic economic crisis. I especially like “Booby the folk singer” You can watch the video here

Uh-oh! Another big bank is the subject of a depositor run amid charges its chairman has run off with customers’ money. Thankfully, this scandal is taking place in Eve Online, a space-age virtual reality created by CCP, a games developer and Iceland’s coolest company. But these troubles in the ether may offer some valuable lessons [...]

Quelle surprise. Pall Kolbeins writes in Tiund, the tax office newsletter that large investors in Kaupthing and Landsbankinn managed to sell their stocks before the economic disaster last year. Half as many individuals owned more than half a million ISK on face value in the two banks at the end of 2008 than at the [...]

Writing of debts according to the Zingales Plan The households of Iceland are still awaiting solutions for the problems they are facing in the wake of the economic disaster. The government of people in the fifties has still not offered better solutions to young people than to make the final payments of their price-indexed home [...]

Katrin Jakobsdottir, minister of education has said that the Student Loan Organization is unable to raise its loans. I don’t understand why student loans are lower than unemployment benefits. You have to repay the student loans, not the unemployment benefits. So the government has a chance of receiving some of the money back. You get [...]