And I’m a little bit afraid that what I see happening within Europe and in the United States is, with all due respect to the leaders of these countries, they seem to be gradually moving away from the task of reconstituting the proper regulatory mechanism in the light of this crisis and perhaps hoping that [...]

“Whatever you say about the Icelandic banks, they operated within the framework of the European regulations on banking and finance,” Grimsson, who is the country’s head of state and doesn’t lead the government, said in an interview with Bloomberg radio in New York today. From Bloomberg The president who’s got his foot firmly stuck in [...]

Only 1% of Icelanders think Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, president of Iceland can be perceived as a symbol of unification. In a new poll by MMR, 72% cannot name an Icelander who can be. Former president Vigdis Finnbogadottir got the most mentiones with 4,5% and David Oddson received 3,8%. Government leaders Johanna Sigurdardottir and Steingrimur J. [...]

Since Newsweek was pointing fingers this week with its “Who’s to blame” report, it only makes sense that Icelanders start extending their index fingers. For every Fred Goodwin, there is a Bjarni Armannsson and for every David Oddson…well there are actually few people who could have made as much mess in history as David Oddson. [...]

First comes a strong work ethic. This is a heritage from the old society of farmers and fishermen, where necessity dictated that the fish catch had to be brought ashore and processed immediately when the boats came in to harbour and that hey had to be turned and collected when the weather was favourable. When [...]

Amidst the economic disaster, little has been talked about the disappearance of Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, president of Iceland from 1996. Olafur was a controversial politician to say the least, a leftist who had no control over the finances of his ministries in the eighties but surprisingly won the election of 1996, not least because of [...]

Today we celebrate independence day. For what it is worth. The feeling towards nationalism has always been like most other emotions in Iceland, sort of quietly muted, yet boiling underneath the surface. Iceland celebrates Jon Sigurdsson’s birthday as a national day. Fittingly for nepotistic Iceland, the man who married his cousin became their leader in [...]