Iceland teeters on the brink of bankruptcy

[BigBearJohn]

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) — 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.

"Everything is closed. We couldn't sell our stock or take money from the bank," said Johann Sigurdsson as he left a branch of Landsbanki in downtown Reykjavik.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hJdb2RwrEg_X8yNRHcVvn_OE9vKwD93LRO8O1

[PretzelWarrior]

1. Weren't they supposed to strike it rich due o global warming?

Extra farmland, new beach resorts, etc etc?

I also saw they froze some British banking assets and British PM Gordon Brown who is also under fire for the job he's done was expressing OUTRAGE and saying he would take legal action for Britain.

Is this the new world war? Financia collapse leading to recriminations and lawsuits and counter suits?

WIll the world be redrawn in one giant WTO/WorldBank/IMF People's Court?