Last Updated On: January 22, 2015
By: Dominick Giammarino
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Hi everyone, I wanted to post this, it’s a little older, but I have been so busy that I was unable to get to it.
Originally Posted at http://www.imf.org/external/np/sec/pr/2014/pr14493.htm
Ms. Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), today named Mr. Poul Thomsen to the position of Director of the European Department. His appointment is effective immediately. Mr. Thomsen succeeds Mr. Reza Moghadam who resigned from the IMF in July this year.
“In his 32-year career at the Fund, Poul has made many invaluable contributions as a staff member, manager, and senior leader in the institution. He is highly respected inside and outside the Fund for his intellectual leadership, operational experience, and technical expertise. In recent times, he has played an especially pivotal role in our work in some of our most challenging programs in Europe,” Ms. Lagarde said.
“The Management team and I are confident that Mr. Thomsen is the right person for this important position at this time and we look forward to continue working with him into the future,” she added.
During the global financial crisis, Mr. Thomsen was mission chief for Iceland, the first advanced country to suffer the consequences of the crisis. He then led the IMF’s programs for Greece and Portugal. He was appointed Acting Director of the European Department on July 30, and has retained oversight of the IMF’s relations with Greece and its European partners, as well as other IMF programs in Europe—including Romania and Ukraine.
Mr. Thomsen, a Danish national who holds a Master’s degree from the University of Copenhagen, began his career at the IMF in 1982. During the 1990s and early 2000s, he gained extensive knowledge of the economic and social problems facing the countries in Central and Eastern Europe through multiple assignments in the region. This included serving as the IMF’s Senior Resident Representative and Head of the Moscow Office during the period 2001-04. He was appointed Deputy Director of the European Department in 2008, a position he held until his appointment as Acting Director.
Nicks notes:
So, Iceland was one of those countries that stood up and told the bankers, “This debt you say we owe is not ours, we are NOT paying for it.” I don’t know what to think of Thomsen at this time, but I do know that the people of Iceland got their country back.
See the following article which I absolutely love!
http://rt.com/op-edge/iceland-bank-sentence-model-246/
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/09/iceland-bankers-convicted-unemployment.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-25349240
Excerpt from Zerohedge
The impossible is possible. Never say never. Wall Street bankers are staring agog at headlines coming from Europe where, in Iceland, the former chief executive of one of the largest banks in the country which was involved in crashing the economy in 2008 has been sentenced to jail time. As Valuewalk reports, in receiving a one year prison sentence, Sigurjon Arnason officially became the first bank executive to be convicted of manipulating the bank’s stock price and deceiving investors, creditors and the authorities between Sept. 29 and Oct. 3, 2008, as the bank’s fortunes unwound, crashing the economy with it. It appears he was as shocked by the verdict as Wall Street-ers are, “this sentence is a big surprise to me as I did nothing wrong.” It was likely all for the people’s own good…