I've been hearing in the news a bit about this breakdown of the Icelandic economy but haven't had any real kind of grip on it. This article seems like it is a good summary.
Apparently, the big story here is basically a small story. The Icelanders had for generations made good livings with fishing and farming. With globalization and free trade credit became widely available to the trustworthy and sturdy Icelanders. They dove headlong into a buying spree, obtained companies throughout the world and made excessive use of their credit. Now its come time to pay the piper, and their banks have been annihilated save one. Fire and gravel all around, the cycle can start anew eh?
The closing line sums it up in a nice way, though I have to wonder about the 'icelandics' term.
“The Icelandics had better get their fishing rods out. They’ve got a lot of cod to catch to make up for what we’ve lost”
