Iceland is fucked
I do not know how I have missed this. I can only assume that the excitement of Sarah Palin’s visit caused me to overlook it in the reports submitted by my covert assets around the globe. It appears, thanks mainly to those pesky mortgage-backed securities everyone has been botting on about, that the nation of Iceland is about to go bankrupt.
Not to be confused with Greenland....
That’s right. We are not talking about “a venerable Wall Street institution”, or a “leading investment bank” here, we are a talking about a first-world nation going tits-up as a result of it’s investment strategy. And here’s the poser – where could a possible government bail-out come from, if the government itself is bankrupt?
Riddle me that one, Batman.
Some of the people of Iceland
It appears that the assets of the Icelandic banking system, which they stand to lose in toto, are nine times Gross Domestic Product. Understandably, the cool-named Prime Minister of Iceland, Geir H. Haarde, is not having a good week. Addressing the people of Iceland, he sounded slightly more miserable than Winston Churchill in the darkest days of 1940:
If there was ever a time when the Icelandic nation needed to stand together and show fortitude in the face of adversity, then this is the moment. I urge you all to guard that which is most important in the life of everyone of us, protect those values which will survive the storm now beginning. I urge families to discuss together and not to allow anxiety to get the upper hand even tough the outlook is grim for many. We need to explain to our children that the world is not on the edge of a precipice and we all need to find an inner courage to look to the future.
Let me remind you, he is talking about the same financial crisis as the one we are facing.
On a more positive note, Iceland does boast insanely hot women many of whom are already morally bankrupt. Check this out:
Icelandic Girls Get Busy In Reykjavik – The best bloopers are a click away
Result!