It has been a rough decade for Iceland . Between the crash of three major banks to the prime minister’s resignation over corruption revealed by the Panama Papers, the insular island nation has experienced a heavy dose of failure in its most essential systems of governance. This curse, however, could turn into a blessing, as Iceland is uniquely positioned to take full advantage of cryptocurrency like no other nation. Two major upheavals in a decade
Back in 2008, Iceland’s three major banks collapsed , ushering in a corresponding economic collapse and prompting the heads of said banks to be jailed.
In the country where common folks were forced to still use the failing króna and you need a permission to buy foreign currency for your holiday plane ticket, the revelation came that their prime minister had finances in offshore accounts. No wonder it has reopened fresh wounds from barely eight years earlier.
As a result, the relatively new and radical Pirate Party has already taken the lead in Iceland’s polls. The failure of banks and regulators
Rather than a tale of corruption, outrage, and justice, however, what Iceland’s struggles really underscore is the complete failure of central banking and capital controls, illuminated intimately as only possible in a small island nation of barely 300,000. And, regrettably, the government appears to be doubling down on its mistakes.
Not only were the three bankers who were jailed in response to the 2008 collapse recently released from jail after serving only a fraction of their sentences, incoming Prime Minister Sigurður Ingi Jóhannsson supports legislation banning Iceland’s citizens from keeping their money abroad in tax havens.
Instead of learning from the errors of the past, Icelandic officials seem hell-bent on repeating them. Auroracoin’s rise, fall, and rebirth
As a solution to the banking system and the devalued […]
