Friends and Foes

Economic woes have been on everybody’s mind lately. Many countries find themselves in a financial pickle and are trying to come up with different solutions.

The Iceland Weather Report has been covering events in Iceland in great detail, not forgetting to take a jab, or two, or three at the US as usual.

It is interesting how fashionable and mundane it has become to criticize America. Everybody who is anybody does it regularly and relentlessly, and of course, a lot of Americans feel the need to apologize profoundly for things that they cannot really change. So, now the US didn’t come to the financial aid of Iceland – never mind that it is going through an intense financial crisis itself, never mind that Iceland will be better off with euro’s (the currency of most of its debt) than with dollars that are after all the hard currency of the US. No, nothing matters and Iceland “got pissed” and successfully sought a new best friend, Russia, which agreed to loan €4bn ($5.43bn) to Iceland. It seems like it isn’t a done deal but it is a curious development nevertheless.

Will this make the US change its mind and offer the financial help? Whatever the outcome will be, Iceland should be cautious in playing with Russia – such generosity never comes without a high price.