Comments on: Iceland’s richest man defends economic record

By: Bromley86

Bromley86 — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:31:28 +0000

Bloomberg keep referring to a comment by an analyst at S&P that the Icelandic government is “‘ring-fencing’ the domestic interests and ‘probably abandoning’ external liabilities”. Interestingly that comment was made back on 9th October but they keep bringing it up in their current articles, so it might be reasonable to assume it’s S&P’s current opinion.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=avKoJORlPS4g

That gels with comments I’ve read/heard by Oddsson, Haarde & Matthiensen. I really wouldn’t hold out much hope of any significant compensation from Iceland for one of the offshore banks given that even the EEA guarantee is in question.

By: Bellyup

Bellyup — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 09:44:30 +0000

Yes well as someone who stands to lose their life savings for thinking that Icelanders were honest people and who were talked into NOT taking my money out by a whole load of Irish Blarney I ask.

What is Iceland going to do about the honest people it has in effect STOLEN money from?

Not only has it stolen their money but in many cases their dreams and their very livelihood

By: Knowless

Knowless — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 16:37:06 +0000

“Firstly, during the first half of the year there were no indications that Landsbanki and all the Icelandic banks would be hit by the blows”

Not true, alarm bells were at that time being rung loud and clear. Does Bjorgolfur say now that by ignoring the relevance of such warnings that there were no such indications?

“that there were more than enough assets against all these deposits”

What kind of assets?

“So it is a general misconception that as a large shareholder in a bank you can exert much influence, you have less influence than usual”

Here he denies involvement and responsibility for Bank policy.

But as a shareholder he later claims he was a central part of the offered perfect solution.

By: Roubles to Reykjavik: Moscow money leaves lessons to be learned | IceNews - Daily News

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 13:45:08 +0000

[...] Last week’s interviews from billionaire father and son tycoons Bjorgolfur Gudmundsson and Bjorgolf…therefore created a lot of debate in Iceland and elsewhere. [...]

By: Bromley86

Bromley86 — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 23:23:06 +0000

GD. That’s why I said racism/nationalism – it’s all pretty much the same. Two whites can still be racist towards each other if *they* decide that they’re different races (especially as race is a scientifically questionable concept).

By: Peter - London

Peter - London — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:14:09 +0000

William Wallace:
>>Be sure that he has a government job.

LOL. I am a director in a US consultancy in specialised industry that I can’t identify (~business risk analysis).

Just about as accurate as your other comments though.. keep it up.

By: William Watson

William Watson — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 20:14:59 +0000

On Oct 30, 2008, GreatDane said:
>Honestly lists like these are crap.
>
>“Danske Bank” is on par with UBS, which very recently had to be bailed out by the Swiss government because the american sub-prime loans had left them insolvent. Where is the logic in that? HBOS is quite exposed to both sub prime and “alt a” loans, but scores better than Danske Bank, I see no logic in that.
>
>There are others factors in this list, the major factor is the size of the bank.
>Danske Bank: very solid + medium size= decent rating
>UBS: borderline insolvent + huge bank= decent rating
>Kaupting: shaky economy + small size= horrible rating
>
>I am sure you get the picture.

Further to this accurate analysis by GreatDane, I would like to reinforce that market prices do not always reflect the value of underlying assets.

That’s why some people get rich buying undervalued assets when things reach their bottom and then holding onto them until markets recover.

We are going to hear a lot more about Credit Default Swap liabilities *of *banks in the near future. Many huge liabilities are currently hidden.

When the issuer of insurance is going through troubles themselves, premiums go up on all, and astronomically on those who are perceived having any sort of risk, regardless of the risk in reality.

You will find that to be particularly true when a historical analysis of Credit Default Swaps is done for the period we are now living through.

On Oct 31, 2008, Peter – London wrote:
>for a bank that depended on being able to constantly roll over its short term debt, that was
>fatal, even before the UK finished it off.

No, it wasn’t fatal. What was fatal was Darling and Brown ordering the seizure of all the assets of Kaupthing, Singer and Friedlander they could find and giving them to ING at a nice discount.

On Oct 31, 2008, GreatDane said:
>Peter…[comes across] as a stereotype you meet every day in you know; Ignorant, full of himself, refuses to see other peoples perspective since he by definition is always right.
>As for racism I don’t know? somehow I get the feeling he is white, and so am I, so it can’t really be racism can it?

Peter (like certain others here) post nationalist slurs only to try and get a rise out of you and other posters to and distract from the issues and facts posted. As if you hadn’t noticed :)

Be sure that he has a government job.

By: GreatDane

GreatDane — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:58:42 +0000

Bromley I really try to keep it personal between Peter and me. But he somehow come across as a stereotype you meet every day in London, you know; Ignorant, full of himself, refuses to see other peoples perspective since he by definition is always right.
As for racism I don’t know? somehow I get the feeling he is white, and so am I, so it can’t really be racism can it?

By: GreatDane

GreatDane — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:55:35 +0000

Peter (Germany):
In world of Banking the worst things you can be is a: small, because then a central bank is less likely to bail you out.
And
b: backed by a small(weak) central bank which doesn’t have the reources absorb the full economic impact of a given banks collapse.
This chart can’t really be used to determine how carefull a given bank is, since a small bank from a small country will always get a bad rating no matter how conservative they are.
Kaupting managed to completely avoid the american sub prime market and the alt a loans, but still when things got rough in the markets and a sacrifice was demanded Icelandic banks were first in row.

By: Bromley86

Bromley86 — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 11:24:51 +0000

You’re slipping back into racism/nationalism again GD :) .

I know Peter started it with the sandwich thing, but that’s a personal attack and not an attack on the entire Swedish nation.