ICELAND’S COLLAPSE….You think there’s a banking crisis in the United States? Just be glad you don’t live in Scandinavia’s smallest country:
Iceland is on the brink of collapse. Inflation and interest rates are raging upwards. The krona, Iceland’s currency, is in freefall and is rated just above those of Zimbabwe and Turkmenistan. One of the country’s three independent banks has been nationalised, another is asking customers for money, and the discredited government and officials from the central bank have been huddled behind closed doors for three days with still no sign of a plan.
….On Friday the queues at the banks were huge, as people moved savings into the most secure accounts. Yesterday people were buying up supplies of olive oil and pasta after a supermarket spokesman announced on Friday night that they had no means of paying the foreign currency advances needed to import more foodstuffs.
I have to say, though, that the citizens of Iceland seem to be taking their travails remarkably cheerfully. “We will have to eat haddock and Icelandic lamb and forget these imports of goose livers and Japanese soy sauce,” says Iceland’s most famous chef. And drink more liquor. Lots more liquor.
