Ms Sigurdardottir said that it was “unfair” that the IMF and Nordic donors had made access to additional aid conditional on Iceland’s resolving the Icesave issue. But the prime minister voiced hope that the IMF review would start “within the next few weeks”. In written answers to FT questions, she said that the UK and [...]

Some compare the plan to the Versailles treaty’s harsh demands of Germany. A better analogy is the 1982 Latin American debt crisis, in which even Chile, poster boy of Chicago School economics, saw the state take over a mountain of private debt. A decade of stagnation followed. The same could be in store for Iceland. [...]

“Foreign journalists (not Icelandic ones, except for maybe Egill Helgason), Icelandic and foreign specialists, foreign leaders, including Gordon Brown had said from 2006: “this isn’t going to work, you have to do something”. Althingi didn’t do anything, the government didn’t do anything, the Central Bank didn’t do anything, the Financial Authorities didn’t do anything and [...]

Yes, the Icelandic banks have left a lot of damage. But Gordon Brown should not use them to divert from his own problems. Owned by Icelandic bank Kaupthing its UK operation of Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander operated as a British bank, supposed to be supervised by the UK Financial Supervisory Authority. The UK government has [...]

“Dear Mr.Graham Brady: I am an Icelandic citizen and like so many citizens from both my country and the UK, I am absolutely appalled by the havoc irresponsible bankers have wrought on our societies. I am also extremely bothered by the lack of regulatory supervision by the Icelandic banking regulatory authorities that helped create our [...]

  Speaking during Prime Minister’s Question Time, Mr Brown said he was also worried about Christie’s but there were many more people affected and the issue must be looked at “in the round”.  He added: “I visited the nurses at Christie’s hospital when I was in the North. The fact is we are not the [...]