Posted on 11/10/2008 7:01:30 AM PST by TigerLikesRooster
For Icelanders, shock and anger over a dizzying fall
By Sarah Lyall
Sunday, November 9, 2008
REYKJAVIK: The collapse came so fast it seemed unreal, impossible. One woman here compared it to being hit by a train.
Another said she felt as if she were watching it through a window.
Another said, "It feels like you've been put in a prison, and you don't know what you did wrong."
Iceland, as modern and sophisticated as it is geographically isolated, still seems to be in shock. But if the events of last month - the failure of banks; the plummeting of currency; the first wave of layoffs; the loss of reputation abroad - felt like a bad dream, the country has now awakened to find that it is all true.
It is not as if Reykjavik, where about two-thirds of the country's 300,000 people live, is filled with bread lines or shanties for the homeless or looters smashing store windows. But this city, until recently the center of one of the world's fastest economic booms, is now the unhappy site of one of its great crashes. It is impossible to meet anyone here who has not been profoundly affected by the financial crisis.
Overnight, people lost their savings. Prices are soaring. Once-crowded restaurants are almost empty. Banks are rationing foreign currency, and companies are finding it dauntingly difficult to do business abroad. Inflation is at 16 percent and rising. People have stopped traveling overseas. The local currency, the krona, was at 65 to the dollar a year ago; now it is at 130. Companies are slashing salaries, reducing workers' hours and, in some instances, embarking on mass layoffs.
"No country has ever crashed as quickly and as badly in peacetime," said Jon Danielsson, an economist for the London School of Economics.
(Excerpt) Read more at iht.com ...
Funny in an ironic way how these countries that represent Socialism’s finest are getting more to embracing capitalism while we are going the other way.
Probably both.....;^)
France, Germany and Italy are still socialist, even though they have elected “right wing” governments. Just as we are still basically a “right-center” country, even though we elected a left wing government...........
This country was overleveraged to the hilt. That’s what happens when you don’t diversify your economy.
Iceland emulates Enron.
Iceland's problems are fairly unique. I'm not saying the US isn't in a financial crisis, but I would be hesitant to look at Iceland as an analogy for the US. I mean, we're talking about a country with less people than the District of Columbia.
You may be thinking of the Shetlands, off northern Scotland.
They can always eat seal, whale meat and fish. No !!
LOL that’s what I think of when I hear of Iceland. Those great big Icelander’s riding those little pacing ponies. If things go really bad they can eat the ponies.
There was an article about Iceland in NatGeo a few months ago. Seems they had the opportunity to develop some industry but rejected it as not environmental.
Reap what you sow.
Necessity is the mother of invention.
I live within 100 miles of arctic circle, grow over 2000 lb taters, 800 lb carotts, all the cabbage, beets, beans we can eat; and wifey put up over 100 gallon bags of brocculli this past summer; living like kings. Got all the salmon, burbot, caribou, and moose we can eat for 2 years in the freezer too.
I think I would be more worried about the social caliber of people where I live than the availability of food? If I lived in Iceland, all those hotsprings, I'd have greenhouses with orange trees and tomatoes inside.
Be better than having Prueto Rico becoming a state.
Much higher living standard. Be much less a drain to bring them up to speed.
It is too bad our military isn’t there anymore. We would be bringing in some cash flow. I wonder if the people of Iceland wonder about that?
Look closely - Iceland is "us" down the road.
You got sunshine this summer? My relatives in Anchorage complained about all the clouds...all summer long....
Them are big taters.
It hasn't sunk in how very screwed they are... yet.
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