Iceland's Government Brought Down by Financial Failure, Riots

After several days of rioting, Iceland's Prime Minister Geir Haarde agreed to effectively end his government's power over Iceland by calling for a new general election. This is the result after days of rioting by many of Iceland's 320,000 residents who have been hit hard by the global financial implosion. It was only two years ago that the world thought Iceland was a wealthy country with the highest standard of living of any nation. Thanks to deregulation of Iceland's banks and a mad rush to invest in derivative financial instruments, Iceland experienced a runaway expansion of money that virtually everyone misinterpreted as an economic boom. In reality, however, it was just the false promise of fictitious money running amok. No real wealth had ever been created, and once the money bubble popped, reality came crashing down quite rapidly. Many of its residents were now face total financial wipeout, and for a while they were unable to import food due to the collapsing value of their national currency. The frustration led to riots, and the riots eventually led to the Prime Minister effectively ending his administration's rule. Many observers predict a similar situation is due for the United States of America as the full implications of the financial downturn ripple through the U.S. economy in 2009 - 2010.

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Also here is another article with pictures of the riots

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so is it the least populated that is affected first, generally (na collapse such as this)? If that's so, I'd be nervous being a canadian, but then again, we hadn't deregulated all that stuff that the us and apparently iceland did....it does kind of make sense that banks will lend to more populated countries as there is a larger tax pool to get them paid back=less risk?

It could happen in the US but I think the powers there have set up plans so the different groups in America will attack each other rather then the government itself.

reply to post by heyo



I don't think population is a factor in this case. Its just that the banks were deregulated suddenly and people got caught up in a particularly nasty and extreme case of financial euphoria.

reply to post by wycky


Unlike Iceland, America is the single most armed population on the planet.. I doubt the effects would be so .. civil..