Posts tagged as:

Davíd Oddsson

Score one for New Iceland!

April 25, 2010

This past Friday, Reykjavík District Court ruled that the Icelandic state and Árni Mathiesen, former Minister of Finance for the Independence Party, should pay ISK 3 million in compensation to an applicant for the position of district court judge in North Iceland back in 2005. The applicant, Guðmundur Kristjánsson, was deemed the most qualified for [...]

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An eruption, a flood, and some shallow apologies

April 15, 2010

What a crazy day it has been! When I got up this morning, the aftermath of the Black Report was still the Issue of the Day. I flipped through Fréttablaðið during breakfast and was pleased to note that they aren’t shying away from the misdemeanors of their owners TOO much. I haven’t seen Morgunblather since [...]

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Mea non culpa

April 14, 2010

It was painful to watch Valgerður Sverrisdóttir, who was Minister of Finance and Industry for the Progressive Party at the time when the banks were privatized, cross-examined on Kastljós this evening. It is now generally agreed that the outrageous corruption that proliferated inside the banks ca. 2002-2008 began with their privatization. As I’ve written about [...]

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Doddsson’s tyranny: a casebook study

April 13, 2010

In late September 2008, Glitnir bank was in serious trouble and turned to the Central Bank for help. Davíð Oddsson was then CB director, and decided to nationalize Glitnir. The Investigative Committee has ruled that, on this specific point [as well as others] Oddsson showed negligence in the line of duty. Indeed, it has been [...]

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Doddsson does the skedaddle

April 9, 2010

So, as someone mentioned in the comments to the last post, old Davíð Oddsson has decided to leave the country, three days before the Black Report is released. It goes without saying that Doddsson is one of the key players in the 3000-page report. Some might say that he’s simply bowing out graciously to give [...]

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The case of the missing smiley

April 9, 2010

So old Jón Ásgeir Jóhannesson is now on a rabid offensive, threatening to sue the Glitnir winding-up committee for libel over the charges I wrote about in the last post. Jón Ásgeir claims the emails that have been released were all cut apart and taken out of context and – what’s worse – EDITED. There’s [...]

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Anyone who cares about the truth

April 6, 2010

… needs to watch a video entitled Collateral Murder published by WikiLeaks yesterday, showing an attack on a group of civilians in Iraq back in 2007. Two of those civilians worked for Reuters. It is essential viewing, especially for those who believe attacks on civilians are simply an unfortunate byproduct of bringing democracy to the [...]

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Of the EU, Special Prosecutor, and musical chairs in the media

February 24, 2010

Fairly meaty news day today. EUROPEAN UNION First, the EU has declared that Iceland is fit to join their club provided we tweak our policies and administrative structure a bit. If we do, they will kindly allow us to discuss potential accession. They have a few, um, criticisms about how things are done here. [I'm [...]

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The Dirty Dozen

February 12, 2010

As many readers know, we Nicelanders are waiting with bated breath these days for the release of the Black Report – the outcome of the investigation into the bank collapse by a specially-appointed parliamentary committee. The report was delayed at the beginning of February, among other things because high-ranking officials implicated in the report were [...]

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Who lied?

February 8, 2010

There is much talk in the Icelandic media these days over remarks made last week by two high ranking Dutch officials during a hearing by an investigative committee. One is the head of the Dutch National Bank [their central bank], and the other an official with the Dutch Financial Supervisory Authority. During the hearing, both [...]

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