Posts Tagged ‘Last Decade’

Iceland warned of volcano danger to planes “for years”

Sunday, April 25th, 2010

flugvél6Icelandic air traffic control has often warned of the potential impact to international aviation of a volcanic eruption in Iceland; but despite this, European airlines and controllers continue to say that nothing could have predicted that an Icelandic volcano would have such a massive impact on aviation.

Norway’s Aftenposten newspaper spoke to Icelandic air traffic controller Egill Thordarson who said that volcanic ash training exercises have been taking place in Iceland four times a year for the last decade and British and Norwegian teams have joined in on more than one occasion.

Thordarson told Aftenposten that the exercises have consistently proven the potential danger of volcanic ash to aeroplanes and said he has been sending out regular weather updates to European colleagues concerning volcanic activity in Iceland for the last two years.

The journal of Norwegian pilots, Flygelederen, published a six page article on the dangers of an Icelandic eruption in December last year.

Large photo: Anders Peter Amsnæs / www.imagix.dk

A Business Friendly Country

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

Through elaborate twists and turns Catharine Zeta-Jones had to risk her life in a break in to get her hands on the jewels she coveted in Entrapment.

But if you happen to own or control a business which has been bankrupted in Iceland in the last couple of years, the way back to 2007 is made easy by the country’s banks, accountants and business laws. Through those channels, twisting and turning is made strikingly less hazardous.

DV reports that the owner of Leonard, one of Iceland’s most prestigious stores handling jewellery and fine watches transferred the operations onto a new social security number and signed an agreement with his wife that she would assume control of the new company. Last week he was declared bankrupt himself. But through this manoeuvre the couple has managed to get rid of the old debts but still keep the store.

This is not an exceptional case, but a blueprint for why so many of the most reckless business people of the last decade are still heading the companies they’ve run into the ground.

This is why Geir Haarde and David Oddson used to say their aim was for Iceland to become a “business friendly” country.

I for one don’t understand why business schools bother with explaining basic rules in finance and economics to their students anymore. Why are they still teaching that “those who assume the greatest risks also should reap the greatest rewards because they can also incur the greatest losses”?

Why don’t they just teach students how to create two business entities and shove debts into one and assets into the other? You keep your assets and the debts fly off to “money heaven”.

Wasn’t that also how IceSave was supposed to work for Landsbankinn’s owners and management team?

Related posts:

  1. The Icelandic Discourse in A Nutshell
  2. Just Some Private Business Downtown
  3. Why The Fuzz About A Man Getting A Job?

Icelandic energy pays price for aluminium profits

Wednesday, March 10th, 2010

kronur1Nordural (Century Aluminium) pays a quarter less for its electricity in Iceland than the global average. This was revealed in a confidential leaked document to RUV.

It is the energy companies who carry the most risk when global aluminium prices fall.

The document is from Hatch consultants and is compiled on behalf of foreign banks and Nordural. It is stamped ‘confidential’ and covers actual figures on production costs, including energy prices. At the time of writing Nordural was paying 15 mill per kilowatt hour. A mill is one thousandth of a dollar, meaning 15 mill is 1.5 US cents, or 2 Icelandic kronur. Icelandic homes pay roughly 10 kronur per kilowatt hour, and British homes pay up to ISK 42 for comparison.

The electricity cost is connected to the market value of aluminium, which was USD 1,400 per tonne at the time of writing. If the aluminium price increases by USD 1,500 then the price of electricity supplied increases by 15 mill.

The price of aluminium has been roughly USD 1,500 per tonne for the last decade, but prices fluctuate rapidly and most experts predict a slight fall in average prices over the next decade. The document clearly states that Nordural is paying a quarter less for its electricity in Iceland than is average around the world.

Although the document relates to only one Icelandic aluminium smelter, Dr. Sigurdur Johannesson at Statistics Iceland believes heavy industry generally pays the same amount.

The suspected low electric price and the danger to Icelandic energy companies from changes in aluminium prices have been raising eyebrows for some time. And at least one financial advice website encourages investors to buy shares in Nordural’s mother company because of Iceland’s low and stable electricity prices.

Roughly a third of the sale price of aluminium runs to Nordural in pre-tax profit – providing the company with a three-time better deal than Icelandic energy company Landsvirkjun gets for its investment.

With Johanna There’s A New Management Style In Town

Monday, January 4th, 2010

The thirty year old male raged about Johanna Sigurdardottir and called her the “worst Prime Minister Iceland has ever had”.

And this is someone who is to the left politically.

Her shortcomings according to this disgruntled voter was that she is never seen or heard. In a time of great peril to the nation she doesn’t “lead” the nation like a “leader should”. For example, she should just have hammered the IceSave bill through Althingi.

And that is the legacy of the perceived “strong leader” which David Oddson’s career as PM has left us with. A misguided reliance on “strong managers”, in other words attention seeking bullies.

From a realistic standpoint it seems as if Johanna really didn’t want to be still in politics. But she is there because she was the only one who could lead the Social Democrats. They like the Independence Party have suffered from an over-reliance on a “strong manager” for the last decade or so. What they tend to leave behind is a scorched earth, where only “yes people” and mediocrity survive in the shadow of their overbearing personality. Sensible people, future leaders opt out. That is why the Independence Party ended up with Geir Haarde and Bjarni Benediktsson first amongst people like Petur Blondal, Birgir Armannsson, Gudlaugur Thor Thordarson and Illugi Gunnarsson (women are not required to lead the Independence Party). If Johanna hadn’t ran, then the Social Democrats would have had Ossur Skarphedinsson, Arni Pall Arnason and Katrin Juliusdottir spearheading their campaign. No, Johanna was vital to a successful campaign from the left and she has remained the glue that keeps the inadequate pieces together.

The consequences are both good and bad. The good news is that in Johanna’s government, the ministers are in a much stronger position individually than David Oddson’s lapdogs ever were. Ogmundur Jonasson’s hissy fits would not have been made public in the secret chambers of David’s governments. Opinions of others than the leader are aired in the open, with consequences for those who hold them of course. The flip side is that Steingrimur J. comes off as the one holding the reins, and while he is taking the fight on issues like IceSave and budget cuts, the Social Democratic ministers have dropped some important balls, like Arni Pall Arnason regarding household debts, Katrin Juliusdottir on the Verne Holding issue and Kristjan Moller on building bridges and tunnels to nowhere.

I for one don’t miss the “strong management” style of Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir and David Oddson in Icelandic politics. Good leaders allow others to blossom around them, and all they seemed to grow was weed. It would be good to hear less cries for stronger leaders and more demands for a strong nation with a fit government.

Related posts:

  1. The Hidden Prime Minister – The Disappearance Of Johanna
  2. Priorities Of Icelandic Politicians
  3. The Curious Case Of The Social Democrats

A Weapon Of Massive Idiocy – Glenn Beck on Iceland (Video)

Friday, November 6th, 2009

A message to the USA and Fox News.

Just like you Iceland has spent the last decade under the governance of an idealistic herd of nutjobs who ran our economy into the ground.
Just like you we now have enough of those nutjobs appearing on TV and in newspapers trying to blame the bad situation on the current government which entered office under disastrous circumstances.

So please spare us from Glenn Becks’ musings about our country. We don’t need another weapon of massive idiocy talking about Iceland.

Obama’s marxism my a**. Glenn Becks propaganda is borrowed straight from Göbbels. What he is protecting is a failed, ideological system.
But he makes a nice buck from preaching to the converted.

Thin thighs could be deadly

Sunday, September 13th, 2009

thighsGood news for the bigger-bottomed: Danish researchers have revealed that thin thighs may be hazardous to health. The findings, revealed last week, indicate that premature death and heart disease were highest amongst people with the slimmest thighs, which could be bad news for supermodels.

2,800 people in the ‘middle-aged’ bracket were surveyed over the course of the last decade, with findings suggesting that people with thin thighs have a greater mortality rate and chance of heart disease. Researchers from the Institute of Preventative Medicine in Copenhagen have concluded that the risk is doubled for those with the smallest thighs, pointing out that thigh measurement, not waistline, was the studied area.

The discovery, published in the latest edition of the British Medical Journal, found those whose thighs measured less than around 60 centimetres were in some danger.

Those with wafer-thin thighs, less than 46cm, were a serious risk. In the average woman, 58cm is around a size 6 – typically just over 150cm tall just under 60 kilograms. Celebrities such as Madonna and Kate Moss, who weigh in at around 50 kilograms should consider reading the report.

While the reason for the increase in danger is not entirely known, it is believed that a lack of muscle mass can cause lack of metabolism and nutrient processing. The lack of fat can also lead to an inability to process insulin properly, leading to the onset of diabetes.

The results also indicated that anything much over the 61cm thigh mark does not have any significant difference. Of course, the other end of the scales is also a problem area, with obesity a long established cause of heart failure.

The researchers did acknowledge that the study was at this stage crude and evidence would need further corroboration.

Former Bankers’ Threats & Gruesome Grip On Icelandic Society

Friday, September 11th, 2009

How tight was the grip Icelandic banks had on their society in the last decade?

Journalist Anna Kristine Magnusdottir tells of the death threats she received while she was working on a piece for DV in 2007. The story was about the mistreatment of children at a juvenile home at Kumbaravogur. Out of nowhere she got a phone call where an audibly upset man threatened her that he knew where she lived, what her car’s number was, what kind of make it was and that this story should not be published. Other people who had tried to spread these terrible lies about this nice old man (who ran the juvenile home) Kristjan Fridbergsson had been killed before.

Shortly thereafter Anna Kristine was grocery shopping when the cashier told her that her card had been declined as it had been reported stolen. The store intended to call the police but a nationally recognised woman stepped forward and paid Anna Kristine’s groceries and vouched that she was really the card’s owner (all debit and credit cards in Iceland also have a photo of the person on the back).

Anna says she had been scared enough to not run the story, she felt humiliated and didn’t think this sort of stuff could happen in Iceland. The story of Kumbaravogur was part of an extensive investigation DV made into the maltreatment of children in juvinile centers around Iceland decades ago and the paper was rewarded by the Icelandic Journalist Association for investigative reporting because of the series in 2007.

Kristjan Fridbergsson was Landsbanki CEO Halldor J. Kristjansson’s father. When she brought up that her card had been stolen with Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson, his assistant asked beforehand whether she was asking because of that connection.

Bjorgolfur himself has earned notoriety for threats and action. Last year, DV editor Reynir Traustason admitted to his tape-recording employee that he would not run a story because Bjorgolfur would ruin their paper. The Bjorgolfur’s were said to be thinking of buying the paper to shut it down because of critical reporting.

The fear might have been justified. When Gudmundur Magnusson wrote a book about the Thors family, which includes Thora Hallgrimsdottir, Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson’s wife and Bjorgolfur Thor’s mother, the publisher had the whole first edition destroyed. The book’s publisher was Edda Publishing, owned by…you guessed it, Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson. The book included a chapter on Thora’s previous marriage with American George Rockwell which was little known about in Iceland.

Rockwell is described by Wikipedia as “a Navy Reserve Commander (Naval Aviator) and founder of the American Nazi Party. Rockwell was a major figure in the Neo-Nazi movement in post-war United States, and his beliefs and writings have continued to be influential among white nationalists and neo-Nazis.”

Halldor Kristjansson has now moved to Canada to take up a position with an investment firm in the energy sector. Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson’s house of card has come down tumbling, but he has managed to leave large chunks of his debts with Icelandic taxpayers through IceSave. And probably has enough left through his son in the Caribbean or Cyprus to live in luxury.

Apology Accepted But Let’s Talk About This Bonus System Thing

Friday, August 21st, 2009

Ottar Palsson, CEO of failed Straumur Investment Bank has written a formal apology letter, published in Frettabladid today.

Ottar leads a group of Straumur top management who asked for billions of ISK in bonuses for maximising profits in the impending sale of Straumur’s assets.

“In the light of the discussion from the last few days, I am left in no doubt that myself and others working on the reorganization of Straumur should have paid better attention to the situation in the country. I also think it is important that it is known that I have never intended to participate in the asset management of Straumur once the reorganization is complete, and therefore I have no personal interest related to the payment system of that operation. As the CEO of the company, I am responsible for what happens there and I apologize, on the behalf of myself and the company, for the intended system considering only foreign situations and not being in touch with the reality that us Icelanders face as a nation.”

A day after former Kaupthing CEO,  Hreidar Mar Sigurdsson appeared on the Kastljos talk show, pointing fingers in other directions and denying any blame, such a letter is a welcome novelty in Icelandic commerce. Curiously though, Frettabladid’s editor Jon Kaldal touches on the bonus system in his editorial today and asserts that such systems are not bad in themselves. It is important for the state to maximize the price received for the assets and therefore competent people must be paid and rewarded accordingly.

The obsession with bonuses has been disturbing to me for a few years now. I think bonuses is a great way to reward people for doing their job well. Unfortunately that has nothing to do with the bonus systems of Icelandic companies through the last decade.

At Kaupthing, there were different layers of operation and some seemed to be fit to receive massive bonuses while other weren’t. In my personal opinion it had nothing to do with the job being done but more to do with who’d done the job. The trouble with bonuses is that top management can dole them out like candy and decide who gets to participate in the feast or not, especially when there is no transparency to the system. Also, benchmark numbers can be manipulated. A result from this database might tell a different story from another database and an independent survey might tell yet another. This was quite common within the banks, to use the numbers that fitted the means.

Front-line employees were encouraged to sell products. Bank tellers and service staff in the branches receive salary that is insulting, especially in the context of top management’s wages. A teller’s salary during the good times would be between 130-150.000 ISK per month, just over unemployment benefits. They could earn more though through sales of the bank’s products, which yes, delivered sales results but at the cost of harmony in the workplace and high turnover in employees. While top sales management loved pitching the staff against each other, eventually in most places the staff itself agreed on working together and sharing the benefits. Which is what any decent bonus system ends up doing eventually.

And that is the key to any successful bonus system, and an important thing to remember when building future societies. Straumur’s management for example wanted those billions for themselves, neglecting all the other employees toiling away below their ranks. As any participant in team sports will tell you, and any business with more than one employee needs to consider itself a team, success comes through co-operation. Just ask Michael Jordan how he did with the Bulls when they were a one-man team.

Ottar Palsson’s apology is therefore accepted on the terms that he and other Icelandic business leaders start working for the benefit of the whole, instead of their own. Otherwise it is absolutely useless and things will not change.

PS: My favorite story of a bonus fiasco goes like this. Every year around the publishing of the annual reports, every member of the banks’ staff who wasn’t on a top-bonus scheme received a bonus according to profit. This would be somewhere between 200.000-300.000 ISK in the good times, an amount that mattered to bank tellers, service staff and lower management, usually paid out as extra salary, i.e. cash in hand. Then one year, Kaupthing proudly announced that half the bonus would be paid into a pension fund that invested in Kaupthing’s stock, a great gesture from the bank towards your future. That didn’t go down well, especially with reports of the CEO’s large lifestyle appearing in the media regularly and didn’t happen again. Many were left with an awkward feeling though, and possibly this was an early signal that all was not well since the bank wanted to keep this money within. Last autumn, I had a half-decent sum in that pension fund as a part of my savings. It is worth about as much as a Snickers and a glass of milk today.

Top 10: Who’s To Blame For The Icelandic Crash

Wednesday, July 29th, 2009

Since Newsweek was pointing fingers this week with its “Who’s to blame” report, it only makes sense that Icelanders start extending their index fingers. For every Fred Goodwin, there is a Bjarni Armannsson and for every David Oddson…well there are actually few people who could have made as much mess in history as David Oddson. So here is the top ten, which actually holds a lot more than ten people, but then again inflation is still here.

david-kastljos31

1.    David Oddson
He wanted all the praise so he has to accept the blame. Within 50 years of ridding itself of a foreign dictator, the King of Denmark, Iceland had something close to its own. He went about changing a closed, regulated society and throwing it onto the free market of everything. Unfortunately he wanted complete control of where the wealth and power was supposed to go. He could have become a JFK but ended up a George W. Bush. You can throw Political Science Professor at the University of Iceland, Hannes Holmstein Gissurarson into the mix with David as they are attached lips to butt anyways. Retired for now, supposed to be writing his memoirs. Quite a few dinosaurs and Independence Partyjugend would like to see a return to politics. One of incredibly many top Icelandic politicians to battle cancer in the last decade.

Halldor_asgrimsson_jpg_280x600_q952.    Halldor Asgrimsson
A Godfather of sorts to a Progressive Party Cosa Nostra which did not hesitate stealing the resources of Iceland in broad daylight. Hardly a visionary of any kind, but a dark lord of special interest who did anything to maintain the axis of power he built with the Independence Party. Thought he could become the emperor, but once on the PM throne he was ruefully exposed as a naked don of demons of greed and corruption. Would have sold Mount Esja if the right bid had come along. Retired after battling cancer. Family benefitted directly monetarily from the fishing quota system his party helped build and sustain.

geirvalgerdur3.    Valgerdur Sverrisdottir & Geir Haarde
Every villain needs a trusty sidekick which is both scary in the lenghts it will go to please its captain but pitiful all the same. Valgerdur was the middle-woman when Iceland sold its soul at Karahnjukar and the person who made the privatization of the banks happen into the right hands. Her education at a Berlitz languague school probably made her most qualified. Geir Haarde was handed the atomic bomb with 10 seconds to go on the clock, which was somehow fitting as he’d been one of the chief engineers as a Finance Minister to David Oddson. Of course it was going to end up blowing in their face. Geir now battles a serious case of cancer. Valgerdur was appointed to head a committee by rival party minister Ossur Skarphedinsson, so don’t worry about the co-operative of politicians not taking care of each other.

FinnurIngolfsson4.    Finnur Ingolfsson
When you are a simple Minister of Commerce and Industry one day and a humble Central Bank Governor the other, and then suddenly a billionaire after being handed a state bank through privatization, well then you just have to be either a brilliant businessman or an incredibly corrupt poltician who knows no shame. And Finnur Ingolfsson ain’t no brillant businessman. Is probably negotiating a nice loan-remittance for himself at the banks right now.

bjorgolfur-45.    Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson & Bjorgolfur Thor
Bankrupt a shipping company, run a few risky and failing businesses, go to post-communist Russia and make a buck, get a loan from a newly privatized bank to buy another bank because you are acceptable to the Independence Party, line the bank’s top positions with the Party’s favorite sons and daughters, run it almost to the ground, start a shady pyramid scheme called IceSave, destroy the lives of your countrymen and then ask for a discount on your loans. Last year Bjorgolfur Thor said that he had acquired all money could buy and now he was most concerned about leaving a great reputation. Might qualify for any worldwide list of top ten disastrous businessmen. Are now being battered from all sides, which is not surprising as they owe more money than the population of Central America. Recently asked for a discount on the loan they took from Bunadarbankinn to pay for Landsbankinn in the beginning, probably challenging the world record for chutzpah. Will probably continue to live in luxury with the money they’ve got stashed away in tax-havens.

6.    Sigurdur Einarsson (Kaupthing), Bjarni Armannsson (Glitnir), Hreidar Mar Sigurdsson (Kaupthing), Sigurjon Arnason (Landsbankinn), Halldor J. Kristjansson (Landsbankinn), Larus Welding (Glitnir)
CEO’s and chairman of the boards of the companies that built the smoke and mirrors of the “Icelandic Economic Miracle”. Middle-men in the transfer of Icelanders wealth into the pockets of a few chosen ones. Tax-evading enablers par-excellence who paid themselves a Croesian sum through bonuses and dividends that had no grounds in reality. You will find them as highly paid consultants today, as they are too well-connected to ever go to jail like you would.

7.    Jon Asgeir Johannesson (Baugur), Hannes Smarason (FL Group), Palmi Haraldsson (Fons), Karl Wernersson (Milestone), Agust & Lydur Gudmundsson (Bakkavor)
Parasites of the business world whose magic revolved around leveraging everything through the roof, and making away with what owners equity they could find. It is easy to buy what you want with a loan when you own a bank. Shamelessly neuveu-riche, typical Icelandic car-salesmen who’d gone upscale. Were never favored by David Oddson which made them tolerable to a large part of the nation. Hiding abroad, investing their loot.

8.    Olafur Olafsson
The money behind the Progressive Party, which he aquired through the Party’s connections and consent. Became a billionaire through close connections with Valgerdur Sverrisdottir and Halldor Asgrimsson who left no good morals unbroken in bringing Bunadarbankinn into his hands. Was the main player in a massive market manipulation swindle when a sheik from Kuwait was supposed to have shown his trust in Kaupthing with a 5% share purchase. Again, too connected to ever go to jail.

9.    Kjartan Gunnarsson
You are the Independence Party CEO and on the board of state-owned Landsbankinn. It is privatized and you are still on the board. The whole bank is filled with party hopefuls. The bank introduces IceSave and deliberately ties the knots so that the Icelandic state is responsible if it goes bust. It does.

10.    Ingibjorg Solrun Gisladottir
Could have offered a stark alternative to the disastrous regime of David Oddson’s Independence Party. And for a while she was harshly critical. But when things seemed rosier than ever during the “economic miracle”, she formed a government with the party she loved to loathe. If she’d let the Left Greens form the government instead in 2006, the economic crash would have happened under political explosions. Instead we got scared little mice running into cover as her party had become the second fiddler as the nation burned. Yet another one who’s having to fight cancer right now.

Honorable mention: Olafur Ragnar Grimsson
Hey Mr. President! We haven’t forgotten about you even if you seem to prefer being in hiding these days. An Icelandic president is supposed to unite the nation, support its people’s endeavors and protect its image. He is not supposed to be an on-call PR person for venture capitalists. Building his own dynasty, Olafur left a stain on a beloved institution. The first president to obviously honor greed as good. And that “You Ain’t Seen Nothing Yet” speech completes the icing on the cake on the Icelandic nation’s  ridicule. Has mysteriously disappeared from the nation’s consciousness, another magical PR trick from him.