Iceland- The Central Bank under siege
Posted by seumasach on February 6, 2009
6th February, 2009
Earlier this week, our new Prime Minister wrote a polite letter to the three directors of the Central Bank of Iceland and asked them to kindly resign because, you know, THE PARTY IS SO OVER FELLAS. She also kindly asked them to have an answer for her by Thursday. It is now Friday, and they have not deigned to give her – or the Icelandic nation – a proper response.
I have long ceased trying to work out what exactly is going through the minds of those Central Bank directors because when I tried my brain got twisted into so many knots that it felt like a macramé wall hanging. Are they TRYING to become the three most reviled men in this country? Do they WANT to trample their honour into the ground to the point where it will never be resurrected? Are they AWARE of the immense disservice they are doing to their fellow citizens, by preventing the Central Bank from regaining some semblance of credibility in the global financial sector? Or do they simply have the psychological development of a three-year old?
My lack of comprehension notwithstanding, a few days ago I did get a wee glimpse of the psychological milieu that appears to exist at the Central Bank, whilst speaking with someone who has some insider knowledge of what is going on up there, without having a vested interest. According to my source there is a very pronounced siege mentality prevalent in the ebony tower, with the key people there feeling as though they’re being ambushed and need to barricade themselves inside. Indeed, this explanation seemed to jibe well with reports we got earlier this week that the CB’s doors had been locked on Monday after a demonstration had been called outside to demand the resignation of the CB board. In the end, evidently, the protest fizzled when it was revealed that Doddsson was not at the Bank but rather abroad attending to some important business [wonder what that could be]. The doors, however, remained locked.
I am reminded of the video from the protest on New Year’s Eve day, the one with the pugnacious Central Bank economist and his brother [they come in at around 1.40 minutes], who shouted at the protesters that they werekommúnistadrullusokkar [communist scum]. This “communist” tag is fast becoming a dirty insult in some circles, those of right-wingers who see their power slipping away and use it to denote anyone who protests or demonstrates or simply would like to see a change in government and fundamental values. Indeed, I have it on good authority that the economist in question, Ólafur Klemensson, sports a tattoo of the Sun Cross, which according to Wikipedia “is used by various extreme white nationalist and Neo-Nazi groups to represent the Aryan race.” Delightful.
In These New Times 
inthesenewtimes said
It sounds like the problem here is that if these gentlemen leave their successors will have access to a whole lot of information which wold be compromising not just to these gentlemen themselves but to a network which presumably would extend beyond Iceland itself. No one had ever counted on any of the dominoes falling, but it has happened and concern will be widespread, as far as the City and Wall Street. These gentlemen will therefore be entrusted with holding the fort until trustworthy successors can be arranged i.e. until the red/green coalition has been nobbled. This is probably what Doddson is up to, arranging for due pressure to be applied. Once the threatened leak has been sealed the three of them can disappear from the scene.
The view the international financier fraternity will be taking as far as Iceland goes will be “no pasaran!’, thus far and no further.
As I keep trying to emphasise, this is just the beginning in Iceland. The next phase, perhaps, would be the opening up of all the books of the bank to see exactly who did what. That will be resisted by the brotherhood: by the look of it, it already is being resisted.