Icelands Meltdown: The rise and fall of international banking in the North Atlantic

This paper shows how rapid privatization and liberalization of Iceland's small local banks around 2000, combined with well-developed crony relations among the elite, enabled a small group of financiers to leverage government-guaranteed deposits into a vast wave of mergers and acquisitions abroa...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Wade, Robert, Sigurgeirsdottir, Silla
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2011
País:Brasil
Institución:EDITORA 34
Repositorio:Revista de Economia Política
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs2.centrodeeconomiapolitica.org:article/379
Acceso en línea:https://centrodeeconomiapolitica.org.br/repojs/index.php/journal/article/view/379
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Islândia
crise financeira
privatizações
crise bancária
Iceland
financial crisis
privatization
banking crisis
Descripción
Sumario:This paper shows how rapid privatization and liberalization of Iceland's small local banks around 2000, combined with well-developed crony relations among the elite, enabled a small group of financiers to leverage government-guaranteed deposits into a vast wave of mergers and acquisitions abroad, and redistribute enough of the profits back home to make the economy boom. Negative policy feedback loops were systematically undermined. The incoming left-wing government, with IMF support, has managed to protect the bulk of the population from the worst of the effects. JEL Classification: E5.