Iceland sentences bankers to prison for their part in the 2008 collapse
I'm a native of Iceland.  There are mixed feelings with respect to the sentences.  We are generally proud to have a system that does imprison bankers but there are frustrations that the true architects of the financial crisis not only got off scot free but also with a substantial portion of the loot scurried away on Tortola.  There has been substantial revisionist history practiced by the guilty and their defenders and the more time passes since the crash the fuzzier memory becomes.  After all the electorate voted the parties that were largely responsible for the system that crashed back into power.<p>I'll answer any questions that you would be curious about local sentiment and coverage.<p>EDIT: Having finally gotten to a copy of the article I want to point out several factual statements in the article that I find a little bit challenging to agree with.<p>1. Iceland let the banks fail.<p>Not really.  It was a restructuring.  In the restructure a holding company handed all the assets over to a new corporate entity.  All debts and obligations were honored.<p>2. Iceland avoided austerity<p>Many social programs were cut.  Great cutdowns in the healthcare system, so much so it is on the verge of collapse now.<p>3. Geothermal is clean energy<p>Ask anyone from Reykjavík.  Silver can no longer be kept without wrapping it in cloths, otherwise it goes dark in a day due to the hydrogen sulfide pollution.  It's also not renewable.  You can farm the area for about fifty years before it's too cold to extract and then it takes a millennia to recover.<p>4. Value of ISK/EUR<p>That may be the artificial value while capital controls are in effect.  True value is way below that.  I might cover the "snowhenge" problem later, it's a doozy.<p>5. Quoting the President on the banks.<p>You would have to know how much of a fluffer for the banks the president was for the banks and the oligarchs before the crash to know how stinky that sounds to an Icelander.