Although recently-released tax figures for 2010 show that some of Iceland’s most recognised television personalities earn surprisingly little, there are plenty of high earners.

Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir earns ISK 1.1 million (EUR 6,610) per month, based on figures worked out from how much tax she paid in 2010. Leader of the opposition Independence Party, Bjarni Benediktsson was on just ISK 20,000 less per month.

Local government officials are often on a lot more money, however. For example Mayor of Reykjanesbaer, Arni Sigfusson, earns ISK 1.6 million a month and Hanna Birna Kristjansdottir, current Reykjavik councillor and former mayor, earns ISK 1.3 million. Current Mayor Jon Gnarr is nowhere near, with a monthly wage of ISK 960,000 (EUR 5,770).

The highest-earning media person for the second year in a row is David Oddsson. The editor of Morgunbladid and former prime minister and central bank chief takes home ISK 3.7 million (EUR 22,230) per month — which is more than double the wages of Olafur Stephensen, the editor of the more popular Frettabladid newspaper.

Union and workforce representatives, who have been widely in the news this year, are also often on higher wages than the PM, Visir.is reports. Confederation of Icelandic Employers head Vilhjalmur Egilsson, for example, earns ISK 1.8 million per month — and his counterpart at the Federation of Icelandic Fishing Vessel Owners, Fridrik Arngrimsson, earns ISK 1.7 million.

In the world of television, the actor Steindi Jr. earned ISK 340,000 per month in 2010, presenter Audunn Blondal, ISK 800,000 and Sveppi ISK 900,000. Simmi and Joi, famous for their television appearances and for starting up the Hamburger Factory restaurant, earn ISK 660,000 per month.

At a time when the Althingi parliament is examining a new bill that would see Iceland refund lost Icesave money to the British and Dutch governments, the timing of this latest spat is very sensitive, according to The Guardian.

As previously reported on IceNews, a new Icesave agreement was agreed upon in December and must now be voted on by the Icelandic parliament. If Althingi passes the bill, there is still the potential for President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson to send it to a public referendum. Grimsson is the only Icelandic president to have ever used his/her power to send new laws to a public vote — something he has now done twice; including for the last Icesave agreement. The public voted no by over 93 percent last March.

As reported by Vidskiptabladid, David Oddsson has come out claiming that shortly before the banking crisis of autumn 2008, Mervyn King gave him personal assurances that the Icelandic government and taxpayers would not be called upon by Britain to honour depositor guarantees.

Furthermore, he claims to have the whole conversation on tape: “Usually we did not record conversations such as this one, but for some reason it was done in this case,” Oddsson told Vidskiptabladid.

Icesave held UK funds of nearly GBP 5 billion at the time of its collapse and both central bank bosses had been involved in trying to broker a solution that would have avoided the widespread destabilising effect of an outright collapse. “I was very heartened to hear this and thanked him,” Oddsson said of King’s alleged assurances.

Meanwhile in London, King is said to be livid at Oddsson’s claim and a Bank of England spokesman told The Guardian: “The accusation is completely untrue. The governor told David Oddsson he had to act in the interests of Iceland. The governor had been urging the central bank of Iceland for many months to reduce the size of its banking system. He wrote to Mr Oddson on 23 April 2008 making this point clearly.”

David Oddsson says he wants the Central Bank of Iceland (which he no longer works for) to make the recording public, but that it cannot do so without Bank of England approval.

The letter, which has been leaked on Wikileaks, begins with the words “Dear Tim”.

Oddsson requests a currency swap agreement in the letter due to the fact that all credit lines to Iceland had frozen after the banking collapse. It is obvious from the letter that such requests had been made and rejected in the past — most recently just the month before.

Leaked US embassy documents reveal that Iceland’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs had not been consulted about Oddsson’s letter and was not immediately given a copy, despite knowing of the letter’s existence.

The then American ambassador to Reykjavik, Carol Van Voorst, sent a long message to the USA in which she points out five strong reasons why America should grant the billion dollar loan, as can be seen on Wikileaks.

Iceland is strategically positioned for security purposes and will be very important in the future for its possible oil and gas, and also its “second-to-none” geothermal energy know-how. As the Arctic ice melts, it will also be increasingly important to shipping.

She explained that the Russians and the Chinese were both in the frame to provide a bailout and that it would be in the USA’s best interest to get there first and be the sort of good friend and ally that Iceland would remember in the future.

David Oddsson’s letter can be read here and Carol Van Voorst’s compelling appeal is here.

“Dear Tim,

Friday afternoon, October 24, 2008, the Government of Iceland
announced that an agreement had been reached with the International
Monetary Fund on a stand-by arrangement subject to IMF Executive
Board approval which could take place early in the week of November
3, 2008. The details of the program will remain confidential until
late next week. For the program to succeed, financing beyond that
provided by the IMF will be necessary.

I refer to the discussions which we had towards the end of September
on our request for a currency swap arrangement between the Central
Bank of Iceland and the US Federal Reserve. I also refer to the
discussions which we had earlier in the year on the same subject. As
you explained to us, the main reasons for the Federal Reserve not
wishing to enter into a swap arrangement with the Central Bank of
Iceland were the relative size of the Icelandic banking system and
then in September discussions the absence of an IMF arrangement. As
you are no doubt well aware of, the Icelandic banking system has now
shrunk significantly. Additionally, as mentioned at the outset, the
Government has announced an agreement with the IMF on a standby
arrangement. For it to succeed, financing beyond that provided by
the IMF will be necessary.

I hereby request participation from the Federal Reserve Bank in the
financing of the economic program. Swap liens are short term in
nature, but we need a financing commitment over a longer term
horizon. Because of this, the Central Bank ideally needs a loan from
the Federal Reserve of a medium term maturity, preferably in an
amount of 1 billion USD. We are also seeking financing from other
sources.

I look forward to your prompt and favourable consideration of our
request. As always, I stand ready to provide additional information
as needed. Attached for your information is today’s press release
issued by the Government.”

King did, however, state that foreign central banks could help the Icelanders to sustainably reduce the size and burden of their banking sector. IN his opinion that was the only acceptable course of action.

The Central Bank of Iceland rejected this offer of help, but instead asked King to reconsider his decision on the currency swap agreement. This last letter from David Oddsson never received a reply.

According to Visir.is, it is not known where he has gone or for how long, but it has apparently been confirmed that he will not be in Iceland when the so-called black report is released.

As Oddsson was in charge of the Central Bank of Iceland when the banking collapse occurred, it is almost certain the report will look closely at him and his work.

As such a key character in this soon-to-break news, Oddsson’s departure from Iceland could be due to a desire not to be in charge at Morgunbladid on days when the news is going to be about him personally.

In an extended interview on RUV’s Silfur Egils political talk show, Boyes said Iceland had been poorly governed by the Independence Party and that they had betrayed the nation.

Boyes said David Oddsson’s Independence Party had tried to implement a Margaret Thatcher-style economic revolution without putting the necessary strong state infrastructure in place to regulate it. Iceland is, he said, a great nation, but a weak state.

Boyes also criticised the fact that Icelanders allowed Geir Haarde to act as crisis manager for three months despite being ineffective and “David Oddsson’s lapdog”, although he later rephrased it to “very loyal”.

The politically-active Silfur Egils television presenter, Egill Hegason described Boyes’s book as the best yet written on the Icelandic economic crash.

Boyes said in the second half of the interview that he is largely happy with Iceland’s progress since the crash and was impressed with what he saw while living in Reykjavik to research his book. He still believes that Iceland can be the first of the seriously affected countries to come out of the current global crisis – pointing to the recent National Meeting and young people’s innovative new businesses as areas of success.

The interview can be viewed here for a limited time and begins 30:50 into the video.

DV claims the figures come from a survey carried out by the research centre at Bifrost University on behalf of the media advertising and planning agency AM Media. According to DV, the number of Morgunbladid subscribers has fallen from 40,000 to 30,000.

Morgunbladid publisher Oskar Magnusson hit back hard, saying that the number of ex-subscribers is nothing like as high as DV make out. “This news is nowhere near the truth – and that is pretty much universal for DV’s coverage of Morgunbladid,” he said.

Bifrost University sources confirmed that the survey was carried out exactly as DV reported; but that the data collected is the property of AM Media. Bifrost’s Njordur Sigurdsson stated with apparent certainty that wherever DV sourced its figures, it was not from Bifrost University.

AM Media meanwhile says it does not intend to make the results public, at least for the time being. The media uptake data is collected for AM Media as a tool for deciding advertising costs.

Chair of the Board Asta Ragnheidur Johannesdottir told Visir.is the decision is based on parliamentary cost cutting and has nothing to do with former Prime Minister David Oddsson being appointed Morgunbladid editor yesterday. It will still be possible for MPs to browse Morgunbladid in the parliamentary building itself; just not at their own offices.

“This is one of the things we are doing to save money. Morgunbladid is a newspaper we have been paying for, but in our opinion, that time has now passed. MPs can easily access news on the internet – even on their mobile phones – and therefore have all the information they need at their fingertips,” Johannesdottir said. There are 63 MPs in the Althingi parliament, but Johannesdottir was unable to confirm how many Morgunbladid subscriptions parliament pays for.

“We will continue to buy the newspapers which are available in parliament: Morgunbladid and DV.” She stressed that the decision to stop the subscriptions was taken before the news of Oddsson’s appointment came out.

The news was revealed to Morgunbladid staff by publisher Oskar Magnusson at a meeting earlier today. Staff also learned today that the Sunday edition is to start being distributed along with Saturday’s paper.

Magnusson said in an interview with RUV afterwards that his staff took the news of their new editor well. He said he feels it is not dangerous to have such a controversial figure in the editor’s chair and does not see a widespread fall in the paper’s readership. David Oddsson has always been able to gain widespread attention with relative ease.

As a young man, Oddsson spent a short spell as a political commentator for Morgunbladid before beginning his long political career in earnest. Oddsson was forced out of the Central Bank by the new government early this year; but never intimated any intention to retire from public life.

Morgunbladid will continue to take a position on important issues, RUV reports. It is expected that Oddsson and Johannesson will begin their new jobs tomorrow. The power of editor will be equally divided between the two.

According to Oddsson, it was not very confidence-inspiring when he (Oygard) said he couldn’t remember when the job was first discussed with him at his first press meeting as Director of the Central Bank. That’s quite outlandish and very dangerous, he said.

“He is either suffering from an advanced case of Alzheimer’s, or he told a shameless lie in his very first opportunity to talk to the Icelandic public,” Oddsson said. “I personally hope it is Alzheimer’s, so he can at least forget about the pitiful situation this useless minority coalition government has put him in,” he continued.

He said there are many shortcomings in the laws which have been passed over recent weeks and months, as illustrated by the fall of Straumur Bank shortly after his own removal from the CBI. In his speech Oddsson said that he knew a lot about the background of Straumur which the new governor could not, “Especially at a time when the Financial Supervisory Authority was headless following the howling malpractice of the former Minister of Commerce,” he said. “We can see the same thing with regard to SPRON and Sparisjodabanki now.”

When asked to comment, the Green Party leader and current Minister of Finance Steingrimur J. Sigfusson said Oddsson’s words will do no real harm to either Oygard or the CBI: “No, these are comments which condemn only him,” he said to Frettabladid.