Word: icelander
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Hundreds of years ago, Icelanders entertained one another with Viking sagas - epic, blood-curdling tales about the raiding and pillaging of foreign lands. Today, there are new sagas being told on the craggy island about the greedy attempts by two foreign powers, Britain and the Netherlands, to pry every last krona from Iceland's shattered economy in order to repay debts incurred during the financial meltdown. The rift that's developing between Iceland and its European neighbors is threatening to leave the island isolated - and could even destroy its hopes of finally joining the European Union...
...Iceland took a dramatic stand in the conflict last week when President Olafur Grimsson refused to sign a bill requiring his country to repay the $5 billion that's owed to the British and Dutch citizens who deposited their savings in an online Icelandic bank that collapsed in 2008. Icesave, a subsidiary of the Icelandic bank Landsbanki, offered eye-popping interest rates of up to 15% to foreigners before the crash. (See pictures of the global financial crisis...
...Although Grimsson insists that Iceland will repay the debt - which amounts to about one-third of Iceland's annual output, or $17,400 per Icelander - he says the British and Dutch governments are trying to bully the country into accepting an extortionate interest rate of 5.55% over 15 years. He called for a referendum, set for Feb. 20, on whether the country should accept the repayment plan...
...Britain and the Netherlands reacted angrily to Grimsson's move, warning that Iceland's economic recovery and bid to join the E.U. would be doomed if it failed to meet its obligations. British Financial Services Minister Paul Myners even said the country risks becoming a pariah state. Both Britain and Holland hinted that they may block a $10 billion International Monetary Fund rescue package for the country, and Iceland's Scandinavian neighbors shelved a $2.6 billion loan they had promised Reykjavik. On top of all that, Fitch Ratings lowered Iceland's credit grade to junk status last week...
...Iceland's defiance goes to the heart of the debate about what caused the country's stunning economic collapse - and who has to pay in the aftermath. Critics say Iceland has only itself to blame: the sparsely populated island had a mainly fish-based economy until the early 2000s, when it deregulated its banks and tried to reinvent itself as a global financial power - with disastrous results. Banks such as Landsbanki moved aggressively into European markets and racked up incredible debts - partially because of poor government oversight - which they were then unable to refinance...