A super article by Andri Snær Magnason on Iceland economy.
Magnason is an Icelandic poet and novelist. So in his excellent readable account, he explains how Iceland rose to the pre-crisis levels and the disaster thereafter.
From Scandinavian democracy to target of British anti-terror laws: the whole world knows about the Icelandic crash, but how did the country get itself into such a mess? Andri Snær Magnason tells a saga of privatizations, overreaching and astronomical pay checks.
I did not know that UK used its anti-terror act to put a freeze on Iceland Bank deposits held by UK citizens:
The British government made use of anti-terrorist legislation to freeze Landsbanki’s assets in the United Kingdom. Landsbanki had opened online savings accounts in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, and gathered billions of euros from tens of thousands of individuals, charities and local councils. The legislation had been put in place after 9/11 and was now being used for the first time in a context which had nothing to do with suicide attacks, bombings, kidnappings or extremism. On the British Treasury’s website you could read a list of nation states and groups to which the laws had been applied, and it was certainly frightening company to keep: The Taliban, al-Qaeda, Iraq, Syria, North Korea – and Landsbanki. There were no Italian mafia companies listed, no arms smugglers, no Nigerian money launderers or Columbian drug barons. Al-Qaeda and Landsbanki. The application of the anti-terrorist laws caused Iceland enormous economic damage and didn’t serve to lessen the effects of the global financial crisis.
Fascinating reading.
Much like the tale of Greece and Ireland told by Michael Lewis and Ireland by Henry Farrell.
June 15, 2012 at 6:39 pm |
My My!! Brilliant article. Thanks for this.