I found this to be an interesting read for the UK consumer perspective: http://www.fool.co.uk/news/your-money/savings/2008/10/07/ice...

Personally I have a significant sum of money in an icesave, part of Landsbanki, account. With the Icelandic government talking about every-country-for-itself the guarantee they have in place on the first £16k doesn't look that secure any longer.

I'm not worried. All this is just hype, things are quite fine in the world. Money does not disappear until value does, and people are still producing a lot of value.

The PR skills of Iceland's government are terrible. They keep saying OMG we are going to go bankrupt. Surely then no one is going to lend them any money.

I don't think other countries aren't asking for debts to be repaid. Then it's just the creditor of the banks which are asking for their money. Presumably the savers want to take their money out. So it's a run on all the banks of the country. But since they already nationalized the banks, surely they just have to print more currency. The currency takes a hit and it feels like Russia in the 80s, but it's probably still better than other outcomes.

I couldn't get a handle on what assets were falling away from the Icelandic banks. The article says that they weren't mixed up in the now toxic subprime assets, so is it just the credit crunch that is inhibiting Iceland banks from making short run payments, or are their assets crumbling in other ways? Anyone care to explain?

When I was in school taking econ courses every day I was always so informed about this stuff. I feel so ignorant now!

My interest rate at Landsbankinn was around 14%, which is normal because of the high interest rate from the Central Bank (15.5%).

doh, i actually was hoping that iceland was more shielded from this than japan.

maybe, if they go through this first, they will be the first to succeed post Credit Crisis.

Hey, as long as EVE Online (CCP) doesn't go under, I'm straight.

Another indicator that the USA made a great job at selling their debts to other countries, where entire states have now to pay for the greed of a few people.

Each cent that is missing now (which went to american banks when they were selling these products) has to paid by the entire world now.