Comments on: An interview with Thorvaldur Gylfason

By: Oliver

Oliver — Thu, 07 May 2009 21:04:39 +0000

EU & IMF = Bad.

By: portkins

portkins — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 02:13:03 +0000

What about getting on a gold standard.
Then you will have an honest currency

By: Iceland- Social Democrats and Left-Greens entrusted with forming a government « In These New Times

Wed, 28 Jan 2009 12:47:31 +0000

[...] Bank are clearing out their desks as we speak. My preferred candidate to head the Central Bank: Thorvaldur Gylfason. Fingers crossed. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Bob’s Junkmail, [...]

By: R.Jacob

R.Jacob — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 19:26:57 +0000

Iceland has a very educated population and can come out of the present crisis faster than many others. It has to put its act together and regain the confidence of international investors. One way of doing this is to begin paying or declare when the interest will be paid to holders of fixed income securities and perpetuals in the nationalised banks. Investors can certainly appreciate that the principal repayment will have to wait till the situation gets better. The Icelandic authorities can also publicly declare that Iceland will honour all its international debts and commitments and request the support of investors during this difficult period.

Thorvaldur’s comments indeed is proof that Iceland is rich with right thinking people , new ideas and creative solutions.

Best wishes to the people of Iceland.

By: JoeInVegas

JoeInVegas — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:20:48 +0000

Very intelligent individual, sorry that he has no power to make any of it happen. Or do you all, unless the government lets it.

By: alda

alda — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:22:41 +0000

Sigga – Annoying? Infuriating!! That sort of thing has GOT to stop. I want a New Iceland with no more of that kind of nepotism and corruption.

By: Sigga

Sigga — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 00:11:11 +0000

Finally got to see it… great interview and really is reflective of what I believe is the truth to the current situation. What does it take to get Geir and David out of their cushy little chairs? They are not alone though, a clean sweep needs to be made of all the embætismen that they put in place. I had dealings with one ministry and could not understand the incompetence of the guy that I was dealing with – questioned how he got his job and was informed he was David´s brother in law… urgghhh… so so so anoying

By: alda

alda — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:40:02 +0000

LDE – the fresh water question is precisely that – Iceland currently has ample supplies of fresh drinking water which in the future will become increasingly scarce. Exports are just beginning here and are going very well. People fear loss of this resource if and when we join the EU.

By: Ljósmynd DE

Ljósmynd DE — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 22:29:44 +0000

I would expect that the percentage of the GDP which the fishing industry accounts for will be considerably larger in the next years than in 2007 as the part of the financial sector, the construction industry and the output of the aluminium smelters has dropped. The issues around the fishing industry are certainly some of the most sensitives.

Thorvaldur skipped the question about the feared loss of control over the fresh water ressources when joining the EU. Is this question aimed at the exploitation of hydro power or loss of fishing permits to foreigners or what are the concerns? I would have been interested in his answer.

I fear that whenever it might be viable and profitable to exploit more of Iceland’s hydro and geothermal power reserves in the future, it will be easy for foreign investors to push their interests through against all environmental concerns – as weak as Iceland’s position is. But this might happen with or without Iceland beeing in the EU.

By: James

James — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:41:24 +0000

An excellent high-quality interview – and also succinct considering the complexity of the subject matter.

However, stating that “the fishing industry is smaller than many realize: in 2007, it accounted for 7 percent of Iceland’s GDP” may be misleading. Didn’t banking account for an unusually large part (I read over 80% somewhere) of Iceland’s GDP in 2007? A more relevant statistic would therefore be the estimated percentage for the fishing industry in future, for example in 2009 or 2010.