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The Plot Against Iceland

By catdynamics on April 9, 2008.

Krugman blogs crazy conspiracy stuff...

Original FT story here

Did I mention that you really do not want to piss my cousins off?
If it comes to my cousins vs my ex-classmates - no contest.
Sorry guys.

On a more serious note, this is not a game for Flamers from NY to be playing. Sovereign nations have laws, and extradition treaties, and seriously pissed off people who do not think they exist to salvage the year-end bonuses of drunk New Yorkers.

PS: Bear Stern went under. Iceland did not.
Were it not for the rather dubious federal intervention in Bear Stern, they'd have gone under completely, and hard, taking out others.

PPS: I did some light browsing of Icelandic blogs back when, and there is some explicit discussion of not just the legality of the attempt to "short the economy" but also whether the Icelandic "side" would get the institutional leverage to form a bear trap and squeeze out whoever was trying to break the bank - I hadn't appreciated the spreads on Icelandic bonds hit 10% for a short time - which explains a comment I saw the someone was trying to rate the debt as worse risk than Zimbabwe's.
I am not mildly intrigued as to just what happened to Bear Stern that caused to go from being allegedly solvent on a thursday to declaring after closing on friday that they were facing bankruptcy by monday morning if they didn't get bailed.
Someone squeezed them.

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