IMF

So this is the wall of shields they promised

September 22, 2010

Apropos the discussion that evolved from the postscript in the last post, it just so happened that current affairs programme Kastljós did a segment this evening on home foreclosures and auctions after the meltdown. Some stats: In 2007 there were 175 auctions of homes [UPDATE: and retail properties] that had gone into foreclosure. In 2008, [...]

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The IMF relaxes its Icesave demands

April 10, 2010

So, the International Monetary Fund has decided to relax its stringent stance against Iceland and go ahead with the review of Iceland’s economic program. This is the prerequisite to Iceland receiving more aid from the IMF and also from other European countries [although Norway broke ranks a few weeks ago, as some of you may [...]

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Ta ta strip clubs!

March 26, 2010

So, I had planned to blog about the new ban on strip clubs just passed in parliament, but the Grauniad beat me to it: While activists in Britain battle on in an attempt to regulate lapdance clubs – the number of which has been growing at an alarming rate during the last decade – Iceland [...]

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Are the UK and Holland standing in the way of Iceland seeking its legal rights?

October 11, 2009

A couple of weeks ago I mentioned in a blog post that our [then-] minister for health Ögmundur Jónasson had resigned over the Icesave issue. Yesterday we finally got the full details of why exactly he resigned. Those of you who have been following us for a while will know that we’ve got a nightmarish [...]

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Eva Joly: Iceland is being blackmailed

August 6, 2009

In all the furor surrounding the Kaupthing loan book this past week, the following article by Eva Joly – published in several newspapers across Europe – went virtually unnoticed. The only English-language version I know to have been published was in The Telegraph this past weekend, and it was heavily edited. Below is the full [...]

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Perhaps somebody should send Gordon Brown back to school

May 8, 2009

Old Gordon Brown appears not to have all his cups in the cupboard, as the Germans would say. During question time in the British parliament last Wednesday he claimed that Britain was in the process of negotiating with the International Monetary Fund and other institutions on how to collect from Icelandic authorities the money they [...]

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Should we send the IMF packing?

April 5, 2009

I’ve just finished watching Silfur Egils from earlier and I now understand what all the blogs and Facebook people have been buzzing about all day– two mind-blowing interviews with two different [foreign] individuals who spoke about things that completely turn the world-view of the average Icelander upside down. This totally blows my limited perspective out [...]

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