Talk:Davíð Oddsson

Untitled
Sorry for the bad quality -- I tried to be discreet whilst taking the photograph.... Maybe some Icelandic Wikipedian can contribute a better one. -- Kaihsu 17:52, 2004 Apr 27 (UTC)


 * I changed it with much better one! :)--Avala 15:11, 1 May 2004 (UTC)

This article needs much more data. This man has basically run Iceland for the past 15 years. Surely there is something more to say? -- Palthrow

NPOV and Original research
User Hannes H. Gissurarson has done some great work in extending this article on David Oddson. However he has a namesake in Iceland, Hannes Hólmsteinn Gissurarson, if he indeed is not the same person, who is a vocal supporter, a personal friend, and a political advisor to the former pm., according to the icelandic media. This migh affect greatly the NPOV policy of the wikipedia standard,which would explain the bias in favour of David Oddson. He was a controversial figure to the icelanders, in many polls both the most popular and unpopular politician. A different view from one of the icelandic wikipedians maybe? To work it further into NPOV direction. There seems to be a lot of unverified and unverifiable statements in this article that need citations, or to be deleted. Finally, Mr. Gissurarson is a professor in political science in Iceland according to his homepage, so the article needs to be checked whether it includes his own original research and in such way violates Wikipedia standards.

ST.
 * I have read the article and made some small changes. I think that it is reasonably balanced. It is clear that many parts of it are written by an admirer of Davíð but all the main criticisms of Davíð are discussed so I do not think there is need for a NPOV tag. As for the original research question, I find it a bit strange. Large parts of the article is written by Hannes Hólmsteinn who is well-known in Iceland as one of Davíð's biggest admirers and he is summarising events of 15 years but he does it in a factual way so I cannot see a problem. I would prefer another user to read the article over before the tags are removed but I would not want to see them here for a long time. Stefán Ingi 23:28, 16 July 2006 (UTC)


 * I agree with Stefán -- this article is fair and balanced -- and I am not an admirer of Davíð. Perhaps a little trimming of positive adjectives here and there would be in order, but that's it. -- Palthrow 14:02, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

HI, I read this article through and think that the Baugur controversy is conflated and should be forked to a special article. Regarding the bias - there should be some mention of other great controversies during his government that sparked his popularity/unpopularity such as Decode Genetics case, and the Hydro-power dams that are being build, and maybe also Icelands participation in the Iraq which was frowned upon by the general public. If nobody does it, I will give it a try. --Ununoktium 18:28, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
 * Hmm, I don't really see the need to separate out the material on Baugur, Davíð was very much at the forefront of that, e.g. he made the bribery claims, was probably instrumental in having the media laws drawn up etc. Of course other people were involved and we could have a separate article on the subject but I don't think we need to take anything out of this one.
 * I think the database for Decode should be mentioned, I forgot about it when I read the article the first time because every year that passes without Decode making any serious attempt to create it, it becomes less and less of an issue.
 * Maybe we could mention the Kárahnjúkar project, but only very briefly, as I don't really think that Davíð was seen as the most important person in that.
 * The support for the Iraq war is already mentioned in the article, maybe we could reword the criticism sentence a bit.
 * But I am off to bed now. Stefán Ingi 00:46, 18 July 2006 (UTC)
 * The article has now been read again (by some IP) and some changes made, mostly for the good, so I think it is safe to remove the tags. I reverted a couple of small changes, Perlan is best known for being a restaurant, there are sometimes markets there and other events and there is also a museum, I believe, but these are secondary. I wouldn't like the phrase David's foes anyway, but it was clearly out of place as not only baugur has been investing abroad. Stefán Ingi 08:38, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

Original Research
I removed the tag because everything in this section is supported elsewhere in the article, and can in any case be found elsewhere, e.g., in Wikipedia. Cheers Io 20:16, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

Icelandic Script
I find it odd that an article in English would choose to use non-English letters. Shouldn't names be written in letters that can be understood in English? This might be something others have already discussed. If so, can someone point me to the discussion. thanks tigermarks (talk) 08:23, 7 March 2010 (UTC)

Missing information?
Have I missed something, or does this article fail to mention Oddson's role as the (by many accounts, incompetent, and by all accounts, beleaguered) chief of the central bank during the ongoing financial crisis in Iceland? Rightly or wrongly, his actions and competence have been criticised, and it seems unusual that the timeline of this biography seems to terminate around 2005. He is very much a figure in the news, and this article should be updated to reflect that. I am also slightly concerned by the excessively familiar tone of the piece - Wikipedia articles on famous people are supposed to be biographies, not hagiographies. It's also very unfortunate that this article has only two references, of which only one is complete. A former Prime Minister of any country, particularly such a long serving one, deserves a better written and more complete article than this appears to be. The lack of any detail on his role as CBI chief strikes me as particularly egregious, as does the excessively familiar, unencyclopaedic tone of the piece overall - although clearly there have been concessions to balance in most areas and I do not mean to denigrate the effort that has gone in to the article as it stands. Badgerpatrol (talk) 19:57, 13 October 2008 (UTC)


 * Much of the article was written in 2006 (when Davíð had only recently been appointed to the central bank) by Hannes Hólmsteinn Gissurarson / User:Hannes H. Gissurarson. Hannes was relatively new at Wikipedia and hadn't quite assimilated our flat and dull writing style. He is also Davíð's friend (and makes no secret of that). Maybe he could be persuaded to expand the article with information from the last few years. He's not the most neutral person in the world but he's a very energetic writer with a very good knowledge of the subject. Haukur (talk) 20:28, 13 October 2008 (UTC)


 * I hope there's more than one internet user in Iceland who could update the article of a former Prime Minister! I also see from the template at the top of the page that the Icelandic language version of this piece is featured - if so, it must contain a more up to date biography. Hopefully an Icelandic speaker could transwiki it across, appropriately translated? Unfortunately I don't speak any Icelandic otherwise I would volunteer to do it myself. Badgerpatrol (talk) 11:36, 14 October 2008 (UTC)


 * I'll give you three guesses as to who wrote the Icelandic article. It, too, has not been updated much since 2006. Haukur (talk) 22:21, 14 October 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm going to remove the legacy section, which was speculative and uncited. In any case,  a "Legacy" section seems blatantly out of place when the man is a obviously a current political figure whose legacy is unclear.  I'm replacing it with a short reorganised section on his time as director of the Central Bank.  This needs massive expansion.  -- Palthrow (talk) 14:29, 11 February 2009 (UTC)

Milton Friedman influence
To promote debate I'm posting a para recently deleted from the article. Seems peculiar this article has no link to the wiki article on the 2008-2011 Icelandic Financial crisis.

The latter Davíð Oddsson government (1995–2004) under the influence of monetarist policies of Milton Friedman embarked on a course of tax cuts and privatisations of industry and banks. It cut the corporate income tax to 18%; it abolished the net wealth tax; it lowered the personal income tax and inheritance tax. This created an entrepreneurial climate in Iceland based on borrowing money to buy assets and trading in hedge funds and options. It briefly spurred record economic growth in the country, with the real average income of individual households increasing by more than 17%, but precipitated the 2008–2012 Icelandic financial crisis and has been termed "one of the single greatest acts of madness in financial history.Ref: Michael Lewis. Boomerang. Trabels in the Third World. WW Norton. NY. 2011 p1 and p13. ISBN 9780393081817 NimbusWeb (talk) 09:56, 26 December 2011 (UTC) On the Milton Friedman Oddson connection see: Robert W. Kolb. Lessons from the Financial Crisis: Causes, Consequences, and Our Economic Future John Wiley and Son's NY 2010. p 555 NimbusWeb (talk) 10:20, 26 December 2011 (UTC)


 * NimbusWeb, the purpose of Wikipedia is not to be a debating forum but an encyclopedia. As for your edits, there are major problems with them. Excuse me if I am a bit blunt, but I want to be clear and constructive. The reason for the reverts of your edits is threefold. First, you've displayed a substantial lack of knowledge of that which you edit. You are introducing many major factual errors into the article. You assert Iceland had a sovereign default. That is a major wrong claim. You suggest Friedman's monetarist policy was at the key to Oddson's political program. That is an absurd claim. Careless/clueless editors create unnecessary work for other editors to correct them. Second, the sources you cite are suspect. Lewis is a journalistic author known for sell to a mass audience. His analysis does not seem to be widely recognised as authorative. Kolb is an unknown. The sources for the claims do not appear to meet the WP:RS requirement. Third, and most importantly, you seem to be on the well known left-wing political mission to associate Oddsson, and in turn Friedman, with the financial crash. Whatever the merit of that, and I'm not countering it, your edits do not meet WP:NPOV requirements, as there are other important views on this development which you seem content to leave at the margins. Editors with such traits, who do not seem to approach the editing in a fair and balanced manner, are advised to leave the editing of sensitive and potentially controversial encyclopedia articles of living persons to those with the required knowledge and approach. If you want to improve your editing, based on the above constructive criticisms, then power to you. Otherwise, you should consider participating in a debating forum on this topic, as that would then be your main interest. Wikipedia is certainly not the place for such debates.Hindentown (talk) 11:17, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

I'm not sure who I'm addressing as you don't have a wikipedia identity or talk page, so I'm not sure how much experience you have here. OK, Iceland may not have reached soverign default, but it cam e close and I corrected that. There is plenty of evidence for the influence of Milton Freidman on Oddsson and I've cited it. Use of the words 'absurd' 'careless' 'clueless' represnets an unwarranted emotivist attack on me contrary to wikipedia policies and again may suggest your lack of experience. Saying 'Kolb' is 'unknown' is a value judgement that pales against the lack of references in this article. Asserting I'm on some 'left wind political mission' also is an emotivist attack contrary to basic wikipedia policies. NimbusWeb (talk) 11:50, 26 December 2011 (UTC)

You intriguingly state that "Kolb is an unknown" This suggests a different editorial standard than I am used to on wikipedia. Kolb actually is Professor of Finance and Frank W. Considine Chair of Applied Ethics School of Business Loyola University Chicago and has published many well regarded books in this area. He edited the volume in question and the chapter which refers to the Milton Friedman- Oddsson link was by James A.H.S. Hine and Ian Ashman.NimbusWeb (talk) 12:29, 26 December 2011 (UTC)