Antecedents and Causes of the Collapse of the Icelandic Banks in 2008 and Related Events (), better known as The Report of the Investigation Commission of Althing (, or just ''Rannsóknarskýrsla Alþingis''), and earlier referred to as a 'White Book' (''Hvíta bók''), is a report covering the background and the crash of the Icelandic banking system in 2008.

Investigation

Following the collapse of the Icelandic banking system, Prime Minister

Geir Haarde Geir Hilmar Haarde (; born 8 April 1951) is an Icelandic politician who served as prime minister of Iceland from 15 June 2006 to 1 February 2009, and as president of the Nordic Council in 1995. Geir was chairman of the Icelandic Independence Par ...

began referring to "a white book" intended to reveal the truth about the operations of the fallen banks' on December 11, 2012. On December 12, 2008, by legal act 142/2008, the

Icelandic parliament The (; ), anglicised as Althingi or Althing, is the supreme national parliament of Iceland. It is the oldest surviving parliament in the world. The Althing was founded in 930 at (' thing fields' or 'assembly fields'), about east of what lat ...

established an investigation commission to, in the words of the law, 'seek the truth behind the events leading to, and the causes of, the downfall of the Icelandic banks in October 2008, and related events', 'granting the Commission 'exceptional investigative powers in order to appease the demonstrators and to meet the public's demand for answers as to why their three largest banks, Glitnir,

Landsbanki Landsbanki (, ), also commonly known as Landsbankinn (, ) was one of the largest Icelandic commercial banks; it failed as part of the 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis when its subsidiary sparked the Icesave dispute. On October 7, 2008, t ...

, and

Kaupthing Kaupthing Bank (, ) was a major international Icelandic bank, headquartered in Reykjavík, Iceland. It was taken over by the Icelandic government during the 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis and the domestic Icelandic-based operations were ...

, had collapsed'. As well as arising from popular pressure, the law was passed 'under the leadership of the speaker of the parliament, Sturla Bodvarsson, and pressure from opposition leaders such as Steingrimur J. Sigfusson'. On December 30, the three members of the commission were appointed, being people 'with impeccable reputation':

Supreme Court Justice The Supreme Court of the United States is the highest-ranking judicial body in the United States. Its membership, as set by the Judiciary Act of 1869, consists of the chief justice of the United States and eight associate justices, any six of ...

Páll Hreinsson, who served as chairman; the

Parliamentary Ombudsman Parliamentary Ombudsman (, , , , ) is the name of the principal ombudsman institutions in Finland, Iceland, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden (where the term ''justice ombudsman'' – or JO – is also used). In each case, the terms refer both to the of ...

Tryggvi Gunnarsson; and Sigríður Benediktsdóttir, associate chair in Economics at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

. Although driven by popular protest, the establishment of the SIC was not enough to placate the protesters, and the government fell in the so-called '

Kitchenware Revolution The 2009–2011 Icelandic financial crisis protests, also referred to as the Kitchenware, Kitchen Implement or Pots and Pans Revolution ( Icelandic: ''Búsáhaldabyltingin''), occurred after the 2008–2012 Icelandic financial crisis. There had ...

'. The commission hired 48 employees or contractors, with five teams, including legal, auditors, ethics, and quantitative analysis teams; some foreign analysts were hired, including Mark Flannery of the University of Florida and Eric Talley of the University of California, Berkeley. The commission released its report on April 12, 2010 and then held a press conference at 10:30

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. The report was made available to the public both in print and

online In computer technology and telecommunications, online indicates a state of connectivity, and offline indicates a disconnected state. In modern terminology, this usually refers to an Internet connection, but (especially when expressed as "on lin ...

and a summary with excerpts from the report was also published online in English. Despite the deep penetration of Icelandic institutions by people personally connected with the deregulation of Iceland's banks and the associated banking boom, 'fortunately, and perhaps amazingly .. there was little evidence in the final report ..of a whitewash. The report turned out to be a detailed description of failure, incompetence, and mishandling, often with shocking direct quotes from SIC interrogations of major government figures or business leaders'.

Artistic responses

The report was performed in a non-stop, 146-hour reading by the Reykjavik City Theatre from April 12–18, 2010. The report was turned into a 'computerized textual mash-up ... resulting in a 65 page long poem' called ''Gengismunur'' (“Arbitrage”) by

Jón Örn Loðmfjörð Jón Örn Loðmfjörð (born December 25, 1983, Selfoss) is an Icelandic experimental poet. He is noted for computer-generated poetry, and particularly his 2010 mash-up of the Icelandic government report into the collapse of Iceland's banks in ...

; in the assessment of Eiríkur Örn Norðdahl, the poem 'deals with and represents the banality (and hilarity) of the language surrounding the crisis, the politics and the market'. It has also been seen by Norðdahl to have inspired Sindri Freysson's ''Ljóðveldið Ísland: 65 ár í 66 erindum við þig''.Sindri Freysson, Ljóðveldið Ísland: 65 ár í 66 erindum við þig (Reykjavík: Svarta Forlag, 2009). Its earlier, informal name gave the title to Einar Már Guðmundsson's 2009 '' Hvíta bókin''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:The Report of the Investigation Commission of Althing Economy of Iceland Great Recession in Europe 2010 in Iceland

Investigation

Artistic responses

External links

References