I lived all my life in Bath, England, until May 2012 when I moved to Kópavogur in Iceland.

It is my experience that in a way there is a blackout within the mainstream media of the way Iceland responded to the financial collapse. Whenever the economic problems within the British, European or U.S. systems are mentioned we are always told the only way forward is to refloat the economic system with loans thus increasing the problems faced by citizens in the future. 

The people are always told without this creation of new currency there is not, and has never been, within a modern economy facing similar problems, an alternative to a continued downward spiral. The way things were handled in Iceland has not created a full recovery in a utopian way. 

However, Iceland has neither borrowed its way out of problems nor suffered from a continued and catastrophic downward spiral. The people of the U.K., many countries in Europe and the USA (who have just increased their national debt to a horrendous level) have similar or worse economic challenges. Iceland’s avoidance of both instant financial catastrophe, with a barter economy being the only possibility, and repeated refloating the economy is never mentioned in relation to these issues. Many people take the view this is deliberate as it is easy to see that a citizenship who could see there might be more than a choice between two unpalatable alternatives would become more demanding. 

Some people would call this a blackout!

Best regards

Kay Cook, Kópavogur, Iceland

----

Dear Kay,

Many thanks for your comment. However, it must be pointed out that Iceland did borrow money from the Nordic countries and the International Monetary Fund after the banks collapsed. See a few examples below:

29.12.2012  Loan from Faroe Islands Paid in Full  

08.10.2012  Iceland's Central Bank: Financial Risks Have Decreased  

21.06.2012  Icelandic State Treasury Repays Part of IMF Loan  

ESA