Tiny Iceland Created a Vast Bubble, Leaving Wreckage Everywhere When It Popped

[Onkel Neal]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123032660060735767.html

Mr. Haarde addressed his countrymen. He warned that the banks' grave troubles threatened the whole island. "The Icelandic economy, in the worst case, could be sucked with the banks into the whirlpool," he announced on television.
The solution: Iceland would seize the banks. That evening, Parliament passed a new law enabling this to happen.

The next morning, Tuesday, Oct. 7, Landsbanki was nationalized. Iceland's depositors would be protected from losses, the government said.
In the U.K., banking authorities didn't like the sound of that. British depositors had billions of pounds in Icesave -- and no one was saying anything about protecting them.

In a heated phone call, British Treasury chief Alistair Darling asked Iceland's finance minister if British depositors were getting left out in the cold. "Do I understand that you guarantee the deposits of Icelandic depositors?" Mr. Darling asked, according to a transcript published in the Icelandic press.

"Yes," replied Arní Mathiesen.

"But not the branches outside Iceland?" Mr. Darling asked.

"No," Mr. Mathiesen said, not beyond the €20,000 minimum prescribed by European regulations. Later in the call, Mr. Mathiesen said Iceland probably didn't even have enough money to meet the €20,000 minimum.

Wow, so maybe Britian should sieze Iceland as collateral?

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