European University Institute Library

Bringing down the banking system, lessons from Iceland, Gudrun Johnsen

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-232) and index

index present

non fiction

Bringing down the banking system

bibliography

852681905

Gudrun Johnsen

lessons from Iceland

The combined collapse of Iceland's three largest banks in 2008 is the third largest bankruptcy in history and the largest banking system collapse suffered by any country in modern economic history, relative to GDP. How could tiny Iceland build a banking system in less than a decade that proportionally exceeded Switzerland's? Why did the bankers decide to grow the system so fast? How did businesses tunnel money out of the banking system? And why didn't anybody stop them? "Bringing Down the Banking System" answers these questions. Gudrun Johnsen, Senior Researcher with Iceland's Special Investigation Commission, tells the riveting story of the rise and fall of the Icelandic banking system, describes the commission's findings on the damaging effects of holding company cross-ownership, and explains what we can learn from it all.--, Provided by Publisher

Background -- Illusion of prosperity -- Collapse -- August 8, 2007 : subprime crisis enters the spotlight -- October 6, 2008 : God bless Iceland -- Panic -- Investigation -- Financial liberalization -- How did the bankers do it? -- Funding the banks -- The geyser crisis -- Love letters to the rescue -- Playing tricks on the European Central Bank -- Why did the bankers do it? -- The web of ownership -- Tunneling money through related party lending -- Market manipulation and falsification of equity -- Wages of failure -- Why didn't anybody stop the bankers? -- Funded by the ill-informed -- Debt free state, isolated and without credit -- Putting a poodle on the watch -- What have we learned?