Worrying himself sick every night over the household’s finances, he decided that the correct and responsible thing to do would be to talk to his bank. The bank’s friendly customer representative brought out a spreadsheet and started entering information about his earnings and spending. “This is what you have to do”, she said. “You have to stop [...]

Remember this man. He is one of the faces of Iceland who has been cast aside by his society. The District Court of Reykjavik yesterday declared that the borrower of a currency loan was responsible for paying his loan fully, even if it had doubled in one year. The Court really had few other options, the [...]

It is hard to understand why members of parliament and the government are outraged when the state is supposed to pay unfair debts. When they are simultaneously adamant that the state’s citizens should pay up their unfair debts fully and completely.

If the typical Icelander owns 1 million ISK in a bank account and loses 200.000 then he will experience it as if he’s lost that money. If the typical Icelander owes 1 million ISK in his property and 200.000 is added to the capital because of price indexation and inflation then he will not experience it [...]

At the end of the news article summarizing the details of the proposed transfer of Arion/Kaupthing, we find the following statement of Steingrimur J. Sigfusson, the Minister of Finance: “The Government is satisfied that Kaupthing Bank’s creditors have acquired the majority of the share capital in Arion Bank, and it is important for the development of [...]

Mr. Jonsson from this post has told DV of how Kaupthing/Arion monitored their accounts once they were behind on payments on their mortgage. Well duh, spying on customers’ personal matters is commonplace and very easy? If a single girl who works at a branch at an Icelandic bank meets a handsome guy downtown during the weekend, one of [...]

Iceland today is the one where Johannes Jonsson of Baugur is defending the decision of Kaupthing/Arion to explore every possible way to allow him and his family and business partners to retain Hagar, which controls around 60% of Iceland’s food market. This despite the record losses of their companies which have had to have tens [...]

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 there is an [...]

Today we went to our Kaupthing branch for the last time. Not because we are able to take our finances elsewhere as people in real economies do, nor because they were making us bankrupt because we aren’t. And it wasn’t because they had  an offer for us after we have paid almost 4 million in three [...]

Where would the Icelandic banks be without the Icelandic taxpayers? Maybe having to renegotiate with their customers like BoA. I had a run in with one of the government’s chief advisers on the household debt issue. He told the truth, plain and simple and I don’t know why Arni Pall Arnason doesn’t just come out and say this; “We [...]