As Iceland holds a referendum over a €3.9bn debt repayment deal with Britain and the Netherlands, many voters are struggling to decide whether it is even worth the effort to participate

Of all the arguments ranged to deter countries from leaving the Euro, the primary one is that all the sovereign debt of these countries is denominated in Euros, and as they quit the currency their renewed national currencies would be perceived as weak. The result would be that their sovereign debt would balloon in value. This however might not be the case. While the Euro was tracking ever higher a...

Apparently Iceland is having to consider joining the Euro and EU due to the banking crisis. Even the fishermen ( so the BBC tells us ) are softening in their traditional opposition - making the Cod War a bit pointless. I have a message for the people of Iceland - don't do it ! There are only 300,000 people in Iceland if they join the EU they will lose: Fishing grounds.The ability to govern th...

Everything you always wanted to know about the Euro Debt crisis, but it was always just way to damn complicated to bother with! Courtesy of The New York Times, this chart will help the layman economist at least attempt to understand all of the currents and potential cross-currents of the Euro Debt crisis. The thing that is missing is the exposure of the US banking system to the crisis in the form ...

Iceland seems to have been the worst-hit of all developed countries by the financial crisis. For a country of 300,000 people, it certainly did have a lot of banks. And they certainly did expand very rapidly and probably quite recklessly. A friend of mine who works in the financial sector points out that, yesterday, Iceland tried to peg its currency to the euro. That peg lasted just minutes. And, w...

A delegation from Reykjavik heads to London to persuade the British and Dutch governments to reopen negotiations over a €3.9bn debt repayment deal

Iceland's president announces plans to hold a referendum on the controversial Icesave bill.

Shadow Chancellor George Osborne yesterday attacked "euro-fanatics in the Labour Party" who he claimed are seeking to use the current economic downturn as a lever to push Britain into the European single currency.

Near-bankrupt Iceland's €4bn ($5.43bn) loan from Russia is still not a done deal. Iceland's central bank Governor David Oddsson says that talks are still "ongoing" but that any aid from Russia would be "very much welcomed."   You can understand why Iceland is desperate for a massive euro-injection in the current bank crisis: the Sedlabanki, the central ...

The coalition government of Iceland collapsed Monday under the pressures of a financial meltdown and Prime Minister Geir Haarde said he would hand in his resignation to President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson.