Simply wonderful.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • Sports • * International News & Commentary • Europe • Iceland

Then for the first time I spoke. I said I would have no communication with either of the Opposition parties until I had the King's Commission to form a Government. On this the momentous conversation came to an end, and we reverted to our ordinary easy and familiar manners of men who had worked for years together and whose lives in and out of office had been spent in the friendliness of British politics. I then went back to the Admiralty, where, as may well he imagined, much awaited me.

The Dutch Ministers were in my room. Haggard and worn, with horror in their eyes, they had just flown over from Amsterdam. Their country had been attacked without the slightest pretext or warning. The avalanche of fire and steel had rolled across the frontiers, and when resistance broke out and the Dutch frontier guards fired an overwhelming onslaught was made from the air. The whole country was in a state of wild confusion.

Read it all from Brad DeLong's blog.

Filed under: * Culture-Watch • History • Military / Armed Forces • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • Europe • Germany • Iceland

An entire nation without immediate experience or even distant memory of high finance had gazed upon the example of Wall Street and said, “We can do that.” For a brief moment it appeared that they could. In 2003, Iceland’s three biggest banks had assets of only a few billion dollars, about 100 percent of its gross domestic product. Over the next three and a half years they grew to over $140 billion and were so much greater than Iceland’s G.D.P. that it made no sense to calculate the percentage of it they accounted for. It was, as one economist put it to me, “the most rapid expansion of a banking system in the history of mankind.”

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • Credit Markets • Housing/Real Estate Market • The Banking System/Sector • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • * International News & Commentary • Europe • Iceland

In Worcestershire, the Wyre Forest District Council, another of the three local bodies identified as most at risk, has nearly $14.5 million of public funds socked away in Icelandic banks, or about $145 for every resident. The council's chief executive predicted a "devastating impact" on local services if the situation was not resolved quickly.

"The time that our community most needs us is the time we've got one hand tied behind our back," said John-Paul Campion, the council leader.

London has dispatched an expert to assist the council in examining its finances and exploring its options, but that, Campion said, is not the issue.

"We don't need someone to come help us manage our budget. We need someone to help us get our money back."

Read it all.

Filed under: * Economics, Politics • Economy • The Credit Freeze Crisis of Fall 2008/The Recession of 2007-- • * International News & Commentary • England / UK • Europe • Iceland