WSJ’s Andy Jordan examines how Iceland’s economic miracle came to an abrupt end and explains why the world should care about the collapse of the small country’s financial system.
12/26/2008
"My formula for success is rise early, work late and strike oil." —John Paul Getty
Consumer Credit outstanding fell $14.8b in Sept seasonally adjusted, almost $5b more than expected and marks the 11th month in the past 12 of declines. At $2.456T outstanding, it is 4.9% below the record high in July '08. After a flat reading in Aug, (didn't fall b/c of the CARS program), non revolving debt outstanding fell by $4.9B. Revolving (mostly credit cards) balances outstanding fell by $9.9B. To fully put into perspective today's data, look at the current level of consumer credit (doesn't include mortgages, the biggest chunk of consumer credit) relative to GDP. As of Q3, it totaled 17.2%...
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December 29th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
At about 5:50 is where the most prescient statements are made: “canary in a coal mine” and “first domino”.
December 29th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
All due respect, where in this report is there an actual explanation of “How Iceland Collapsed”?
No mention of the cod fishing industry. Nothing, really.
Nice music, though.
December 29th, 2008 at 10:40 pm
“first domino”
Yes, that is what I keep wondering about: it seems the other dominoes are all pretty quiet, so are they really in trouble or not?
December 30th, 2008 at 7:35 am
KJ,
it’s been somnolent in Greece, Ukraine…
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081222/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_ukraine_financial_crisis