… but he’s not telling.
Seriously, you have to hand it to Doddsson, Chairman of the Board of the Central Bank and one of its three governors - if there is anyone here in Iceland who can drop bombshells, who can get the entire nation up in arms, who can single-handedly and instantaneously create a major drama from a few choice phrases … it is him.
This morning Doddsson appeared at a breakfast meeting* of the Icelandic Chamber of Commerce and held a thundering speech for about an hour. [As it happens he's an excellent public speaker, articulate and with an acerbic sense of humour.]
In his speech he proceeded to whitewash himself and the Central Bank of any wrongdoing in the lead-up to the economic crash. It was ludicrous to claim he had any part in it … he had warned everyone! He’d spoken repeatedly about the abyss towards which the banks were hurtling headlong, but nobody had listened! All the government leaders had done was go talk to the heads of the banks, who had told them that the Central Bank was paranoid! The Central Bank had had no power to stop any of it! But if an investigation revealed that he, in any way, had been remiss in his duties, then far be it from him to stay on. He’d be the first person to resign.
There was a time in the not-so-distant past when Davíð Oddsson might have been able to persuade a large part of the Icelandic population that white is black and black is white. But no more. If he, himself, seriously believes his own words from this morning, then the man is even more deluded than previously thought.
His words simply do not compute. For one thing, a meeting in February is to have alerted the Central Bank to the very serious indicators of what lay ahead; according to Doddsson they were “shocked and stunned”. Despite this, the Central Bank published a report in May entitled Financial Stability in which the fundamentals of the Icelandic economy were said to be “solid” and the economic outlook “bright”.
This morning was the first time Doddsson had spoken publicly since that infamous Kastljós interview in which he said point blank that Icelandic authorities had no intention of “paying the debts of imprudent men”, including, as it transpired, deposits in foreign bank accounts. Words that were widely thought to have been the impetus behind the British government’s invocation of anti-terrorist legislation in order to freeze the assets of Landsbanki.
However, in his speech this morning, Doddsson fired back at those who claimed his careless comments had triggered Gordon Brown’s anti-terrorist move, and followed up with the remark that “not everything has come to light” in that regard and that HE was privy to that information, but wasn’t telling.
[Tease.]
He also claimed that one particular individual had been able to borrow ISK 1,000 billion from Iceland’s bank … but he’s not telling who that is, either.
[Oooh.]
Anyway, I expect the fallout from this will be pretty spectacular. Already folks nationwide are speculating about what it all means. Some think he’s already been sacked and this is his parting shot [after all, he harshly criticized the government - which through all of this has done nothing but defend him]. Already the Social Democrats, who make up half of the coalition in government [the other half is made up of the Independence Party, which - surprise, surprise - is a Doddsson stronghold] are pissed as hell and are calling both overtly and covertly for his resignation. Indeed, just about everyone you talk to here is outraged that he has not been thrown out of office, except the one man who has the power to throw him out: the Prime Minister.
WEATHER
Still damp and very blustery, 10-18 m/s from the southwest. Temps 7°C [45F], sunrise / sunset same as last post.
* If you click on the link, Doddsson is the one on the far right. That picture is just so priceless I had to include it. It speaks volumes.
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Not quite Bush, but I see some resemblance in the facial expression. Perhaps they took the same course, “Politics for Dummies”? :/
How frustrating it is to live in a so-called democracy and yet for there to be such an utter lack of transparency from the people you’re supposed to trust. I do hope this means some major, and imminent, changes for Iceland.
Maybe the “secret” is that money was being withdrawn clandestinely from the banks before the British acted. Foreign currency may have been withrawn directly, or transferred back to Iceland or elsewhere. And those involved would be the usual suspects, the “friends” of the banks or Sjalstaedisflokkurinn. This is what happened in the Norwegian branch of Glitnir before the Norwegians froze the bank assets.
If Sjalstaedisflokkurinn kicks out Oddson, he will rat out the party and their cronies and tell what happened — or so he may be suggesting (i.e. threatening).
Why is this man still roaming around free AND smiling?? Can’t he be charged with crimes against the state? Can the demonstrators at least hang him in effigy so that he might show a little concern? We need a contingent in the U.S. to charge Bush with crimes against humanity. The arrogance and audacity of our alleged “leaders” needs to be seriously addressed or their crimes will continue.
Wow, the plot just gets more and more ludicrous!
Well done on the article in the Guardian by the way
I think he’s decided that if he’s going down, he’ll take everyone else down with him! He may reveal a lot of very interesting goings-on!
Another interesting part in the Doddson speech is when he complains about the FME having been stripped away from the Central bank (back in 1998) and he thus deprieved of one of the most powerful tools that the bank had to regulate the banks.
Guess whose signatures were on that piece of legal document.
Jessie - we can only hope this means radical change, but alas, I’m only moderately hopeful.
Muriel - good guess. Whatever it is, it’s sure to be interesting.
Jon - I know. It boggles the mind.
maja - indeed! and thanks.
Andrew - we can only hope!
Sigvaldi - I know. Það stendur ekki steinn yfir steini.
I enjoyed reading this article - and laughed at “…but he’s not telling.” Iceland is living in interesting times! Maybe the whole Icelandic crisis is just a media conspiracy to increase newspaper sales…
By the way, in the UK, “pissed” means drunk (and “pissed-off” means angry), so those “pissed as hell” Social Democrats may start throwing empty Thule bottles in parliament!
James - sigh. It’s so hard to please everyone.
Ah, the higher you get the more insulated you are. If he is forced out he will probably do what our big politicians do, end up charging enormous speaking fees and traveling the world, making more money that ever before. Along with a huge pension and buy out.
Doddsson really is a phenomenon. You’d never guess that the institution he runs is – to put it euphemistically – in need of new capital from the state, because he didn’t pay any attention to the quality of assets the Sedlabanki was accepting as collateral for loans. He has had to promise the IMF that he will no longer issue central bank loans on the basis of “newly issued, uncovered bonds”, which are the financial equivalent of an IOU note!
Nothing either about the fact that the IMF request was made on the assumption that the Icelandic government wouldn’t have to take on any responsibility for the Depositors’ and Investors’ Guarantee Fund (Tryggingarsjóður), an assumption that was always shaky and has since been shown to be pure hallucination.
Where can I get some of whatever Doddsson is sniffing these days, and can I buy it with Icelandic krónur?
I would like Mr. Doddsson to explain what he did with 400 million + ISK from the sale of the Icelandic Telephone company several years ago?? This subject seems to be very sensitive to bring up before the public. Remember when Mr. Dobbsson said that this money was going to be use for very deserving public projects?????
Physchim62 - I think the drug is called psychosis and is derived from the narcissus plant.
Jónas - ah, yes. How soon we forget. I guess perhaps it depends on how you define “public”. I have a feeling Doddsson defines “public” as “myself”.
@Alda – Ah yes, psychosis, I’d forgotten about that one! That will be why he was trying to get Iceland back onto a pillage economy, just like in the Viking days… Should you wish to try it yourself, please accept – they’re a bit out of season, but then surely so is Doddsson
@Jónas – the money was spent paying off government debt. This meant that the government could afford to give lower tax rates to large companies such as, erm, Kaupthing, Landsbanki, Glitnir, etc. and still run a 5% budget surplus until the crisis came along.