Post #4

"Iceland Teeters on the Brink of Bankruptcy". Iceland, the small country of only 320,000 people is in danger of becoming the first country to go bankrupt. Cafes and supermarkets across the country are half empty and retailers and real estate agents had very few sales. Earlier this week the government took over all the banks in Iceland and centralized them in an attempt to save their country. Iceland is also currently trying to get a 5.4 billion dollar loan from Russia. If Iceland were to go bankrupt, it would not only be a big problem for Iceland but the majority of Europe as well because many powerful Iceland banks have big investments in companies across Europe. Also many Europeans have savings accounts in Iceland banks and would lose all their money if Iceland went bankrupt. Iceland's economy's recent slide comes as a suprise to lots of people because it had been doing well over the past decade and was voted the best european country to live in just last year. But it turns out that Iceland's economy is built on borrowed money that is invested in companies, an economic strategy that is "high risk high yield" says Global Insight's senior economist Venia Spilia. I found it very interesting that an economic crisis much bigger than our own economic crisis was happening in Iceland, but all people talk about is the United States's economic crisis. I also wonder if it is in other country's best interest to not help Iceland and let them go bankrupt because nobody is offering them a loan. I would think that it would be in other country's best interest because if Iceland goes under, then some of their big companies go under, but maybe there is just some logical reason I don't know about. Overall I'm glad I read this article and I thought it was interesting to read about other country's economies after hearing about ours so much.