After almost four years of rapid economic expansion, the entire Icelandic banking system melted down last October, resulting in the biggest banking collapse that any country has suffered, relative to its size. The country’s financial success from 2003 to 2007 — during which the Icelandic stock market multiplied by nine times — turned out to [...]

Bjorgolfur Thor laughed all the way to the bank and is now laughing all the way from the bank. He made his money from beer in post-Soviet Russia and was given Landsbankinn as a gift from the Independence Party of David Oddson and Geir Haarde for the small price of arranging high-paying jobs for people [...]

His friend wasted the last ten years doing drugs, drinking, partying, travelling and spending money left and right, basically ending up left with nothing.  He had saved for a rainy day himself, spent his money sensibly, bought a home, bought a cheap car, worked hard and invested.  When he realized that they were pretty much [...]

Iceland’s problems are not the result of inefficiency. Nor are they result of unethical behaviour. They cannot be traced back to the instability of the króna, to Davíð Oddsson’s erratic behaviour, or to Geir Haarde’s mishandling of telephone conversations with Alistair Darling. The Icelandic problems – yes, all of them – are failures that result [...]

There is nothing to fear except the persistent refusal to find out the truth, the persistent refusal to analyze the causes of happenings. – Dorothy Thompson In the past few months I’ve talked to two persons who are facing a dilemma that they did not expect to face a year ago. They both have detailed [...]

Bankers, politicians, regulators, top officials of the government and the central bank, were all inter-connected, therefore grossly undermining independence and adequate regulation of the banking and financial system. People in positions of power were typically chosen based on their political background and “connections” rather than their economic or financial expertise. Most notable of course was [...]

A friend and I exchanged quotes a little bit earlier. He sent me this one which is a good reminder of where we are;  “Pessimism is a luxury of good times, In difficult times, pessimism is a self-fulfilling, self-inflicted death sentence.” -Evelin Lindner I sent back a reminder of where we were;  “Young, angry and [...]

The prophet whose message drove the Icelandic economy into the ground, Milton Friedman on Icelandic State TV in 1984.  You can watch the video here on DailyMotion

Watch Mar Masson, Glitnir’s PR rep who is still in that position twist his tongue during an interview with the Norwegian State Television on October 7, 2008. Asked a reasonable question about his employers that he isn’t used to have to deal with from Icelandic reporters, Mar stops the interview and explains to the reporter [...]