London, 2008. Benny finds an online savings account called Icesave, paying one of the best rates in Britain. The bank behind it is from Iceland, a country of about 320,000 people. In October, his account freezes.

How a fishing nation's three banks grew to more than 11 times the size of its economy: privatisation, 15.5% interest rates, the carry trade, yen and Swiss franc mortgages, and Icesave. Then ten days in October 2008: Glitnir, 'God bless Iceland', Landsbanki, Britain's anti-terrorism freeze, Kaupthing. The 77% stock crash, the IMF, capital controls, the Pots and Pans Revolution, two referendums, 26 bankers jailed, and who finally paid British savers.

This video is for education and entertainment only, not financial advice.

Chapters:
0:00 Benny's Icesave
0:27 A fishing nation goes big
1:07 Hot money
1:55 Ten days in October
3:17 The crash at home
4:22 Pots and pans
5:57 Who paid Benny back?
6:50 The lesson

Sources:
- 2008-2011 Icelandic financial crisis
- Congressional Research Service, Iceland's financial crisis
- University of Cambridge, the Icelandic banking collapse
- Statistics Iceland, population 2008
- Haver Analytics, Iceland raises rates to 15% (2008)
- Vanity Fair (via 3 Quarks Daily), Iceland goes boom
- VoxEU, the Icesave dispute
- TIME, interview with Geir Haarde (2008)
- CNN, krona against the dollar in 2008
- Al Jazeera, IMF loan to Iceland (2008)
- 2009 Icelandic financial crisis protests
- 2010 Icelandic loan guarantees referendum
- Government of Iceland, EFTA Court ruling (2013)
- 26 bankers sentenced in Iceland (2015)
- Al Jazeera, verdict for Iceland's former PM (2012)
- FSCS cost of the Icesave collapse
- Iceland welcomed 2.3 million tourists in 2018

Music:
"Investigations" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech)
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License

#history #economics #Cashtastrophe