The Progressive Party is currently the laughing stock in Icelandic politics, a title for which there is hard competition. Then again, a bunch of clowns is bound to tickle the funny bone once in a while. Party chairman Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson and MP Hoskuldur Thorhallsson rode like knights in shining armour into an audience with [...]

Iceland can’t afford to wait any longer for its International Monetary Fund review and the transfer of the second tranche of its IMF-led bailout loan, Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir said. From Bloomberg

On August 11, I wrote this to the IMF representative in Iceland, Mr. Franek Roswadowski in light of comments made by Icelandic banks and ministers that the IMF was the entity responsible for debt reorganization. Unlike Icelandic officials, Mr. Roswadoswki answers his emails and today I recieved this from him: Dear Daði, No, the IMF [...]

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. [...]

August 11, 2009 Reykjavik, Iceland To the attention of Mr. Franek Rozwadowski, IMF Resident Representative to Iceland Mr. Rozwadowski I write to you on behalf of a small group of friends who have bought their first home in the last five years. Through an accident of birth, it so happened that all of us were [...]

I am responsible for the Citizen’s Movement. I voted for them in the election and since the they have given me reasons to be both elated and puzzled. Citizen’s Movement MP, Thrainn Bertelsson shares my concerns when talking about his three colleguaes in the parliament to Frettabladid today. The other three, Thor Saari, Birgitta Jonsdottir [...]

Heard an interesting explanation as to why there isn’t and won’t be an overall remittance of loans. The IMF is against such a measure. I’m not sure how that can work as the IMF said it would not interfere in in-state matters but let’s suppose it is true. Then the Progressive Party must surely know [...]

Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the CEO of the IMF says that the Icelandic government reacted badly to the financial crisis of last year and that mistakes have been made. Strauss-Kahn used Lehman Brothers and Iceland as examples of responsive failures of the economic crisis in a speech in Vienna last week. Even though the Icelandic banks had [...]

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 [...]

The IMF has a track record, which seems to have been almost completely ignored in discussions of a proposed $750 billion increase in its resources. Nearly twelve years ago a financial crisis hit Thailand, South Korea, Indonesia, the Philippines and Malaysia. The word “contagion” became part of the financial reporting lexicon as the crisis spread [...]