Iceland in possible deal with Russia over naval base.

[chuck]

Considering Iceland went broke on American mortgage default swaps, I suppose it would be ironic if we Americans take over Iceland and find ourselves footing the bill for the interest on their $100 billion dollar debt. BTW, if your think American commercial, personal and federal debt is bad, each Icelandic person's share in Iceland's debt is 4 times worse.

[Lesforan]

$100 billion? Not much compared to what we spent a couple weeks ago.

[chuck]

Except Iceland has fewer people to pay off that debt than Raleigh, North Carolina.

[Lesforan]

Maybe they could pay us off in lutefisk.

[chuck]

I think they will have to indenture themselves to 5 centuries of servitude to pay that off.

[bengtsson]

Iceland tried to be a hedge fund and lost. They we caught up in the Yen Carry Trade. Next to 0% yen loans from Japan were deposited in the three big Iceland banks for the much higher interest rate. Then the banks went wild buying up half the UK.
The UK savers also went to Icesave for big interest rates of return. Now didn't our parents tell us that higher return often goes hand in hand with higher risk. The UK and Iceland are now in a mini Cod War only over Icesave deposits this time around!
Hard to say how this shakes out, the IMF is looking at a rescue plan for Iceland. The Russia 4 billion Euros loan is still on the table. Iceland Krona has greatly devalued making imports expensive and difficult to stock. I think Iceland debts equal at least 4 times GDP or maybe it was 12 times. Whichever it is, they are going to have to catch alot of Cod fish to balance that out.
My last visit to Iceland was 2 years ago. They wallowed in their new found wealth at that time. Immigration was big as Icelanders were above most ordinary jobs by that point. As one old Icelander is quoted in the Times : "They will have to learn to get their hands dirty again". Easy come, easy go!

Bob B.

[Seasick]

My opinion on hedge funds is that they are money betting against the economy. Along with the sub-prime (sub-intellegent) loan fiasco have cause the recent economic tanking event. I wouldn't invest in Russia even for 100% interest. Iceland will probably go along with the EU bailout. The problem is that Wall Street will probably get more wreckless in the next few years because they will think they are entitled to a bailout whenever they screw up.

[Timmy C]

Thread split and put into Off-Topic.