It is a rare day on which I find myself reading an article and having more than one cocktail party ready anecodote to take away from it. That rare day was today.
In reading Wall Street on the Tundra, a story from the April 2009 edition of Vanity Fair written by Michael Lewis, I ended up with more anecdotes about the rapid rise and fall of the Icelandic investment banking system than I can normally find settling. While Lewis, one of my favorite writers (though not to the point where I will actually read his books - I don’t read books), has a certain way of capturing my attention, I sense that if even half the anecodotes are half true, then Iceland may be the strangest place I’ve never been to but suddenly hope to. Through the course of the article, I couldn’t decide if the insular environment was more of the dramatic and eccentric (David Lynch/Twin Peaks) or light-hearted and swashbuckling (Coen Brothers/Fargo).
Without further delay, the highlights of the highlights:
- Iceland ranked No. 1 in the United Nations’ 2008 Human Development Index.
- The population is approximately 300,000.
- Their debt is currently 850% of their GDP.
- People are blowing up Range Rovers for the insurance money. People, as in plural.
- The Alcoa (aluminum smelting plant) could not be built until it was proven that the site was not home to elves.
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