Tuesday, October 07, 2008

Could be worse, we could be Iceland

Caught in financial crisis, Iceland tries to tap Russia : "... (Iceland) whose estimated lending is equivalent to almost 12 times the size of the national economy ... " That seems like a really bad thing.

The names of affected institutions, in reverse order of hilarity: Landsbanki, Kaupthing, Icebank and Glitnir. It is worth noting that Glitnir is a hall of one of the Norse gods. Its pillars are gold and the roof is of silver. In an irony-aware culture like Iceland's, you'd think someone would have nixed naming a bank after it and thereby almost guaranteeing disaster.

I don't speak that there Viking talk, but I think it's safe to assume that the 'glit' in Glitnir is the same as in 'glitter' as in all that does isn't gold.

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