Good foreshadowing of the US economy?

[Weekday Warrior]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081007/ap_on_re_eu/eu_iceland_meltdown_1

The speed of Iceland's downfall in the week since it announced it was nationalizing Glitnir bank, the country's third largest, caught many by surprise despite warnings that it was the "canary in the coal mine" of the global credit squeeze.

"Everything is closed. We couldn't sell our stock or take money from the bank," said Johann Sigurdsson as he left a branch of Landsbanki in downtown Reykjavik.
The government had earlier announced it had nationalized the bank under emergency laws enacted to deal with the crisis.
"We have been forced to take decisive action to save the country," Prime Minister Geir H. Haarde said of those sweeping new powers that allow the government to take over companies, limit the authority of boards, and call shareholder meetings.
A full-blown collapse of Iceland's financial system would send shock waves across Europe, given the heavy investment by Icelandic banks and companies across the continent.

To try to wrest control of the spiraling situation, the government also loaned $680 million to Kaupthing to tide it over and said it was negotiating a $5.4 billion loan from Russia to shore up the nation's finances.

Sounds amazingly familiar to our situation, even if we somehow managed to fix our economy "in house" it is likely that global collapse will drag us down.

My friends, I think I am going to say:

THE SKY IS FALLING!!
​

 

[The Fourth Wolf]

I don't think so....

Iceland doesn't have the depth, economically speaking that the U.S. does so it's economy is more sensitive to large scale disruptions.

The canary analogy is appropriate but only if you assume that the U.S. is the miner making his way back to the surface.

We will recover from this. Probably after the new year. Right now so much of the problem is that the biggest investors have pulled their money out in the wake of all the uncertainty so once some predictability over the mortgage mess is implemented things will level off and the recovery can begin. The markets need to know what tax policy they'll be dealing with before they commit to the types of large, long term investment that lends stability back to the economy.

Time to buy into an index fund if you have a chunk of cash handy.

 

[SLEDPEDDLER]

That why there are things like guns and ammo.......

 

[ouch]

I just hope they cant find all the guns and ammo when we become communist country...

 

[ArcticBoy]

That why there are things like guns and ammo.......

X2!!!!!!!