Þyrnirós - æ vakna þú - æ vakna þú

Ingibjörg Sólrún,

nú þurfum við á leiðtogum að halda sem skynja tíðarandann - skilja hvaða breytingar eru að eina sér stað, átta sig á því að við erum hluti af stærra aðljóðlegu samhengi og skilja hvað þarf að gera til að byggja upp traust aftur hjá erlendum þjóðum.

Ég og fleiri höfum horft mjög til þín og þess sem þú stendur fyrir og þú hefur sagt opinberlega að þér finnsti að bankastjórn Seðlabankans eigi að segja af sér - en ekkert gerist í því máli enn og skaðinn eykst af þeim sökum dag frá degi.

Svo þetta er yfir til þín - nú verður þú að fara að segja við Geir "hingað og ekki lengra":

Oddsson defends role in Iceland’s collapse

By David Ibison in Reykjavik

Published: October 23 2008 18:44 | Last updated: October 23 2008 18:44

The governor of Iceland’s central bank has defended his controversial role in the collapse of the country’s banking system, saying he repeatedly warned the heads of the banks that they were in danger but was ignored.

David Oddsson, prime minister between 1991 and 1999 and father of the liberal politics that revolutionised the economy, has fallen from grace in the aftermath of the crisis. There have been demonstrations calling for his resignation, where protesters chanted “David out!” and sang the socialist anthem “The Internationale” outside his office in Reykjavik.

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Mr Oddsson said he urged the banks to deleverage. “We tried to get them to do that [downsize]. We had meeting after meeting with the directors of the banks and we have the minutes to prove it. We told them we did not think that funding through deposits in Europe [would replace] long-term funding. But we were regarded as too pessimistic.”

Iceland’s banks expanded rapidly by increasing overseas lending to more than 10 times the size of the country’s economy. When it became difficult to raise funds on wholesale markets, they turned to deposit funding by offering high interest rates to savers across Europe. These accounts are at the centre of the crisis.

Mr Oddsson’s comments reveal worrying limits on the ability of the central bank to ensure the financial system’s stability, and contribute to the growing belief that Iceland’s banks had become so economically and politically powerful that they could disregard central bank guidance.

Oversight and regulation of the banking system is expected to form a central part of the conditions imposed on Iceland by the International Monetary Fund when an expected announcement is made, possibly as early as Friday, of a $6bn (€4.7bn, £3.7bn) bail-out for the country backed by co-ordinated action from other central banks.

Mr Oddsson also blamed international central bankers, saying he had requested overseas financial assistance in the summer to boost Iceland’s foreign exchange reserves from the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank and the Bank of England, but was rebuffed.

Mr Oddsson believes their refusal contributed to the collapse. “If we had had more capacity then we would have been in a better position to pressure the banks to downsize. We would have had both carrots and sticks, but in reality we had neither.” He gave only lukewarm support to the IMF-led rescue package saying he hoped it would not be a “humiliation”.

Davíð: Varaði ítrekað við að bankar væru í hættu

Athugasemdir

[Greta Björg Úlfsdóttir, 24.10.2008 kl. 04:48]

Takk fyrir góða tengla (línka)!