Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Ya-ta Boy]

REYKJAVIK, Iceland - 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.

The government had earlier announced it had nationalized the bank under emergency laws enacted to deal with the crisis.

"We have been forced to take decisive action to save the country," Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde said of those sweeping new powers that allow the government to take over companies, limit the authority of boards, and call shareholder meetings...

Iceland's reinvention from the poor cousin in Europe to one of the region's wealthiest countries dates to the deregulation of the banking industry and the creation of the domestic stock market in the mid-1990s.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081007/ap_on_re_eu/eu_iceland_meltdown_1

Maybe now we should start panicking.

[aka Dave]

To be honest there was some good news.
http://www.nytimes.com/


Look at the first two stories on the left.

[mises]

Pakistan is about a month away from bankruptcy as well.

[RJjr]

If Iceland is unable to repay that huge loan from the Russians, then what? Russia foreclosing on Iceland altogether? I wonder if one of the conditions of the loan agreement was for Russia to be able to use Iceland as a Midway of the Atlantic of sorts.

What a fiasco. I can't believe a seemingly normal country like Iceland could get themselves into such a situation.

[Bigfeet]

I'm sure the evil American empire is involved in this somehow.

[sojourner1]

Britain is suing Iceland for freezing UK savings account holders deposits.

So this means a series of country system meltdowns are going to occur around the world one after another where bank accounts become frozen? Probably so. I believe we are only seeing the beginning of a very very difficult age.

[mindmetoo]

Iceland will no doubt shortly be a cheap tourist destination. If you like blond women... on your mark, get ready, get set...

[Ya-ta Boy]

Shellshocked Iceland takes control of biggest bank

REYKJAVIK (Reuters) - Iceland took control on Thursday of its biggest bank, Kaupthing, to try to shore up a teetering banking system.


The state has now seized control of three of the nation's major banks after Landsbanki and Glitnir were taken over earlier this week.

At the center of a financial hurricane which has claimed several of the world's biggest banks, Iceland's prime minister has warned of the risk of national bankruptcy.

The central bank has tried then abandoned attempts to prop up its battered currency...

The final straw came when Britain transferred control of the business of Kaupthing Edge, its Internet bank, to ING Direct and put Kaupthing's UK operations into administration. That put Kaupthing in technical default according to loan agreements.

"It did not matter that the parent company had sufficient liquidity and its position was solid," Kaupthing said in a statement.

As tension rose between the two countries, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown also threatened legal action on behalf of more than 50,000 savers with Landsbanki's icesave unit, which has frozen its accounts.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081009/bs_nm/us_financial_iceland

[Bigfeet]

I don't see any way out for them except for bankruptcy. The Russian's $5.5 billion loan will be a drop in the bucket. The banks will have to liquidate their assets at the worst time to pay back foreign depositors.

[RJjr]

[Gatsby]

Screw Dokdo, Korea.

Get a real piece of the rock. Buy Iceland!

Think of the fun you could have teaching them to speak Korean and making them eat kimchi three times a day!

[RJjr]

Why would Korea want to buy a terrorist state like Iceland?

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/14/20081009/tpl-iceland-bank-freeze-used-anti-terror-81c5b50.html