Isn't it the case that a big part of what sets Iceland apart is the ratio of the international exposure of its banks to the size of its economy. That is, even if it were true that Iceland's banks weren't more aggressive than say, U.S. banks - which is sort of like saying that you didn't have any more to drink than the other alcoholics at the party - the difference was that the international exposure of Iceland's banks was much greater than the capacity of the Iceland government to bail them out. They were too big to fail, but they were also too big to save.
-- Robert Naiman Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected] Promote Concrete Steps to Engage Iran http://www.change.org/ideas/view/take_concrete_steps_to_engage_iran (follow the link, click the blue box at left to vote for this idea to be presented to President Obama) On Sat, Dec 27, 2008 at 8:47 AM, Doug Henwood <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Dec 27, 2008, at 1:14 AM, michael perelman wrote: > >> I'm trying to understand today's story in the Wall Street Journal about >> Iceland. The article says that the banks were offering more than 7% >> interest on deposits and the Icelanders were borrowing money cheaply from >> places like Japan. To whom were the banks lending at rates substantially >> more than 7%? Or were they just using the funds to speculate on a domestic >> bubble? > > Richard Portes > > <http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#081023> > > told me that the Icelandic banks weren't doing anything aggressive with > their funds, and that the image of the country as a giant hedge fund was a > slur. An Icelander who listens to the show emailed me to say that Portes was > close to the banks and not inclined to be critical. Unfortunately, the > Icelandic MP I had on the week before > > <http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Radio.html#081016>, > > a union leader and chair of the Green delegation, couldn't say much more > about the origin of the situation than that the capitalists caused it. > > Doug > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
