Yeah, that's about right, Tulac. There were investors who took too big chances and invested more than we really had. Then the word on the street is that the Króna was held high for years while they were building
THIS - so that importing things needed for it wouldn't be too expensive, and so they could get foreign workers (when the króna is high, people want to come to iceland to work because the money is worth a lot in their home-country). Now they're not importing things anymore, so they dropped the króna, and at the same time the crisis hit. But that's only the word on the street, but I personally believe it might very well be right.
Icelanders got used to being rich. In 2007, i was working fulltime for a part of the year and I got 2800€ per month. I don't even have a high school diploma. That's more than many people in europe get, even after a university degree. With today's exchange rate, it's around 1400€ - the same amount in Krónur.
Everything here is now higher - except the salaries. People are getting bankrupt, and on top of that they're losing their jobs. People are fleeing iceland, lots of the foreign workers are going home. For example a Polish programmer I was dating. He was working for one of the banks. Icelanders are going, most of them to the nordic countries. My dad's going to Portugal in January.
A nation that was so used to being rich, and is now struggling with selling their extra houses and cars. A part of my family has at least 3 houses (probably more, I can't keep track) and several cars - but they can't sell any of this. They used to be billionaires, now they owe money.
Then comes the deal with the Brits... we were hoping to get some help, but nobody would help us except for Russia and IMF. Russia wouldn't be a good idea, since they were just into us because of our position in Nato (it would be a nice way to piss off the other countries), for the Oil on the North Pole (or so I heard, I don't know anything about it) and for our excellent location for a base. Too bad for them that there are now thousands of students living in the old US base :bleh:
So out of two evils, the IMF. And Faeroe Islands helped us, which is awesome!! They're so tiny and stuff.
Now people lost faith in the government, there are protests few times a week that tend to end with the police macing people... there's a lot of tension going on. I personally can't wait for the day I'll move back to Italy. Too bad the flight is two times more expensive now and I totally lost my job because of the crisis.
LONG REPLY, omg....