Iceland teeters on the brink of bankruptcy

oct 9th, 2008

poor icelanders! the scandinavians are generally good people. obviously they are suffering from having dealt with the limeys.

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From: A


Iceland teeters on the brink of bankruptcy

 By JANE WARDELL, AP Business Writer
Tue Oct 7
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081007/ap_on_re_eu/eu_iceland_meltdown_1

REYKJAVIK, Iceland - This volcanic island near the Arctic Circle is on
the brink of becoming the first "national bankruptcy" of the global
financial meltdown.

Home to just 320,000 people on a territory the size of Kentucky,
Iceland has formidable international reach because of an outsized
banking sector that set out with Viking confidence to conquer swaths
of the British economy — from fashion retailers to top soccer teams.

The strategy gave Icelanders one of the world's highest per capita
incomes. But now they are watching helplessly as their economy
implodes — their currency losing almost half its value, and their
heavily exposed banks collapsing under the weight of debts incurred by
lending in the boom times.

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