It is a truism that when America sneezes, Europe catches a cold. The subprime mortgage crisis, which began in America in 2007, unleashed a veritable epidemic of financial ill health all over the world. All European countries were affected, and the developing world also felt a chill. However it was Iceland, a tiny volcanic outcrop in the North Atlantic whose population of 300,000 had the highest GDP and counted itself the happiest in the world, which caught the worst cold. It has nearly killed them. For a few short years, the Icelanders deluded themselves that they were rich. Dour Reykjavik became the Capital of Cool. Rock musicians like Damon Albarn bought houses and stakes in pubs. Clubs boomed, the alcohol was expensive and the Krona was strong. All over the world people are trying to understand what caused the economic crisis and are asking themselves who is to blame. In Iceland that question is easily answered and the handful of bankers and politicians responsible have had to hire body guards, hole themselves up in their country houses and stay off the streets for fear of attack. Collaborating with the business editor of Iceland's leading daily newspaper, award-winning writer Roger Boyes tells the inside story of the bankrupting of Iceland and explains how it has ramifications for us all, from the private and public investors who trusted their money in Iceland's banks, to the workers in high street clothes stores whose owners no longer can pay for the shirts on their own backs. Writing with panache and colour, and drawing on interviews with everyone from artists and policitians to the local fisherman, Meltdown Iceland is an authoritative and compelling account of the financial destruction of this tiny, icy but vibrant country.
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`It is hard to think of a European country more incompetently run in the past 20 years than Iceland ... Boyes has done a remarkable job to produce this book barely year after some of the events it describes' --Sunday Times
`Boyes has done a remarkable job to produce this book barely a year after some of the events it describes. He knows Iceland well and conveys the strangeness of the landscape, the dogged decency of its people and the endless "white nights" of the Arctic summer' --Robert Harris, Sunday Times
`Boyes, an award-winning foreign correspondent who has been reporting in Icelandic affaires for the past three decades, gives an admirably succinct account of the Kreppa's causes and effects. He shows the complex interweaving and rivalries within and between its nascent oligarchies, invariably with a telling detain to illuminate each stage of the descent into economic chaos'
--Scotsman
`Boyes has done a remarkable job to produce this book barely a year after some of the events it describes. He knows Iceland well and conveys the strangeness of the landscape, the dogged decency of its people and the endless "white nights" of the Arctic summer' --Robert Harris, Sunday Times
`Boyes, an award-winning foreign correspondent who has been reporting in Icelandic affaires for the past three decades, gives an admirably succinct account of the Kreppa's causes and effects. He shows the complex interweaving and rivalries within and between its nascent oligarchies, invariably with a telling detain to illuminate each stage of the descent into economic chaos'
--Scotsman
About the Author
Roger Boyes is a writer and prize-winning European correspondent for The Times newspaper. He has been reporting from Iceland since he was sent on his first foreign assignment to cover the Cod Wars in 1976 and is the author of eleven previous books.
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17 of 18 people found the following review helpful
By JonJonsson
Format:Paperback
When I bought this book I was excited to get the British side of the Icelandic story. Sadly the book has almost nothing to offer in that regard. The author seems to have written the book after having stayed for few weeks in Iceland and taking interviews with a selected group of people. However, for some reason he does not have taken the care to let some native or someone with an intimate knowledge of Iceland read the manuscript before publication since the book is full of factual errors and either incomplete or incorrect rendering of events that could have been easily corrected by almost any person taken off the street of Reykjavik. Quite often Mr. Boyes just echoes urban legends, such that Icelanders all believe in elves, or simply takes direct sentences and clichés from tourist guides. Worse still, is apparent that Mr. Boyes has very limited knowledge of both finance and banking and thus takes very dubious shortcuts in explaining chain of events. There are people in Iceland that believe, like Mr. Boyes, that the banking collapse in Iceland can best be explained as a personal duel between Jon Asgeir Johannesson the "owner" of Baugur and Glitnir and the former Central Bank governor and Prime Minister David Oddsson. However, for most informed observers that is both a cheap and simplified explanation. The same goes for many of the other analysis Mr. Boyes offers in this book. I, for one, doubt that Jon Asgeir Johannesson got the terrible urge to launch his "financial invasion" of Britain as a child during the Cod Wars between Iceland and Britain in the 1970's.
I have no doubt that Mr. Boyes is a clever and experienced journalist. In some cases it is quite interesting to read an outsider's perspective on the events in Iceland. However, there must be some minimal level of field work and research outsiders must do to be able to write a credible and accurate account of such drastic and deep ranging social and economic events in a foreign country. Sadly, it seems that Mr. Boyes did not have the time go rise above that threshold when writing this book.
I have no doubt that Mr. Boyes is a clever and experienced journalist. In some cases it is quite interesting to read an outsider's perspective on the events in Iceland. However, there must be some minimal level of field work and research outsiders must do to be able to write a credible and accurate account of such drastic and deep ranging social and economic events in a foreign country. Sadly, it seems that Mr. Boyes did not have the time go rise above that threshold when writing this book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have read with great interest this book written with a pleasant prose.
Being half Italian I am - unfortunately - used to misgovernment and it has been astonishing to read how a country, always depicted as nearly perfect in all fields, could become a sort of international "pariah" after swallowing savings from various European countries threatening not to return them even !
The easy and tautological concept "when investing in something risky you can get higher interests on one hand but on the other you get higher risks" (and therefore may lose your amount of money) should be written on walls in our Western world.
The fruit of greed has impoverished so many Europeans, but we must also remember how some banks have used savings, forgetting that behind a bank account number there are families, children, elders, HUMAN BEINGS with their hopes sorrows expectations etc.
A new ethics is compulsory in the finance world, but I am very dubious that the lesson have been useful and understood.
Congratulations to Mr Boyes and an invitations to reluctant people to read his book.
Being half Italian I am - unfortunately - used to misgovernment and it has been astonishing to read how a country, always depicted as nearly perfect in all fields, could become a sort of international "pariah" after swallowing savings from various European countries threatening not to return them even !
The easy and tautological concept "when investing in something risky you can get higher interests on one hand but on the other you get higher risks" (and therefore may lose your amount of money) should be written on walls in our Western world.
The fruit of greed has impoverished so many Europeans, but we must also remember how some banks have used savings, forgetting that behind a bank account number there are families, children, elders, HUMAN BEINGS with their hopes sorrows expectations etc.
A new ethics is compulsory in the finance world, but I am very dubious that the lesson have been useful and understood.
Congratulations to Mr Boyes and an invitations to reluctant people to read his book.
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
This is a well-written book about one of the problems caused by the most recent global financial collapse.
It was interesting to read just how such a small and insignificant country such as Iceland could bring so much trouble to so many financial communities.
An easy and imformative read, which left me thinking why such a small country ended up in such a mess.
It was interesting to read just how such a small and insignificant country such as Iceland could bring so much trouble to so many financial communities.
An easy and imformative read, which left me thinking why such a small country ended up in such a mess.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fascinating book
This book, which I read as a copy borrowed from my local library, was so fascinating that I felt bound to buy a copy to give as a present to my son, who is a small business... Read more
Published 12 months ago by John M
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thought Iceland had clean government? Think again.
Meltdown Iceland is completely gripping, and tells the inside story of how Iceland bankrupted itself in 2009. Read more
Published 21 months ago by John Reardon
4.0 out of 5 stars
this is the one !
This was a great read even in summer 2011 and I found I could not put it down - a much easier read than anticipated as it was extremely interesting. Read more
Published 23 months ago by dreamflower
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Viking Saga
From private investors, pension funds to government bonds and local councils, everyone was taken in by the lure of investing in Iceland. Read more
Published on 23 July 2010 by Sontee
5.0 out of 5 stars
Meltdown Iceland
Bought this ahead of a 40-year awaited visit to Iceland - three times postponed, then again threatened because of successive closure of European and Icelandic airspace. Read more
Published on 29 May 2010 by timby
5.0 out of 5 stars
Meltdown Iceland: How the Global Financial Crisis Bankupted an Entire...
Excellent book. Gives a detailed account of the political and economic reasons for the 'bankruptcy' of Iceland. Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2010 by Darragh Mehigan
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fast-paced tale of how Iceland's economy melted
Most people aren't very familiar with Iceland, an isolated, homogenous, near-Arctic island. Now, thanks to Roger Boyes's wonderfully told tale of its financial collapse, readers... Read more
Published on 15 Feb 2010 by Rolf Dobelli
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