From the monthly archives:

March 2009

Searching for Icesave depositors

March 30, 2009

Dear readers, I need your help: I am looking to get in touch with people who had deposits in Landsbanki’s Icesave accounts. If you are an Icesave depositor and would be willing to share your experiences with me, I would love to hear from you. Similarly, if you know of anyone who had money in [...]

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A counterpunch for Vanity Scare

March 28, 2009

A reader, Greg, just sent me a link to an article he wrote in an online newsmag called Counterpunch, entitled The Insolents Abroad. In it he takes old Michael Lewis of Vanity Fair to task, puts him through the wringer and hangs him out to dry. Excerpts: In an apparent attempt to get a quick [...]

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And here I thought the CBC had some credibility. Silly me.

March 27, 2009

Here’s a delightful little story about journalistic integrity. Last Monday, just after landing at Keflavík airport, I was leisurely browsing the Duty Free Store when my cellphone rang. It was my friend Jonas, asking if I had any interest in commenting on THAT Vanity Fair piece on CBC radio. Apparently the CBC had contacted him [...]

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YT speeching Chinese!

March 25, 2009

The journalist from the Bejing News sent me a PDF file today with the interview I posted about a few days ago. Check it out! Meanwhile, a Norwegian broadcaster from NRK who interviewed YT and Sigurjón Egilson after the panel last Saturday sent me an mp3 file of it last night. I’ve had trouble uploading [...]

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In which YT gushes about SKUP

March 25, 2009

The SKUP conference I attended last weekend was just excellent. It was held in the small town of Tønsberg about 100 km south of Oslo and was attended by around 600 journalists and reporters, mostly from Norway but also from abroad. Most people stayed at the hotel where the conference was held and everything about [...]

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Bandwidth blues

March 24, 2009

Just a quickie post to sincerely apologize to anyone who was trying to access the site yesterday and instead of the IWR front page got a big, fat THIS BLOG HAS RUN OUT BANDWIDTH banner [or something equally nasty]. Normally my web host starts bombarding me with emails when I’m up to 80 percent of [...]

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YT strikes in the Bejing News

March 22, 2009

A few days ago I received a request for an interview by a journalist in Bejing. I was impressed by his questions — he was clearly well-informed about the background to the situation here in Iceland, and appeared to have a sincere desire to communicate to his readers what life here is like in the [...]

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Have blog, will travel

March 19, 2009

Tomorrow morning I’m flying over to Norway at the invitation of SKUP – “a foundation … dedicated to promoting investigative journalism in Norway” [according to their website]. I’ll be speaking on a panel under the heading Finanskrisen: Penger gjör blind, which to the best of my knowledge translates as: The Financial Crisis: Money Makes Blind. [...]

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Privatization of the banks was steeped in corruption

March 19, 2009

I’ve just come across a link detailing the cesspool of corruption surrounding the privatization of Iceland’s banks a few years ago. It’s from the Iceland Review website, published in 2005. Perhaps most horrifying is that we — the general public — weren’t paying attention. Privatization of banks draws heavy fire It doesn’t seem to matter [...]

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Jonas takes on Vanity Fair

March 18, 2009

Vanity Fair’s Fishy Tales from Iceland But if you’re going to introduce the notion that some kind of Ministry of Elf Inspection exists within the ranks of the Icelandic government, you might as well also note that we take the Hogwart’s Express to the office every day. My pal Jonas Moody sets the record straight [...]

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