What’s the difference between Iceland and us?
Well, there’s the rotten shark meat, the leaving babies outside unattended in freezing temps while you shop, and now there’s the reaction to the financial crisis, which has particularly brutalized that tiny country.
The Financial Times:
Iceland’s parliament has voted to press negligence charges against former prime minister Geir Haarde, in the first concrete step to hold politicians accountable for the 2008 bank crisis that left the country’s economy in ruins.
The move came after a parliament-commissioned “truth report” earlier this year accused political leaders and regulators of “gross negligence” in their lax oversight of the banking sector before it collapsed.
Get that? We can’t even prosecute the fraudsters who profited from the crisis while sending millions to the poorhouse. Meantime, Iceland is going to try its politicians for letting bankers run amok.
What a country!
Ryan Chittum is a former Wall Street Journal reporter, and deputy editor of The Audit, CJR’s business section. If you see notable business journalism, give him a heads-up at rc2538@columbia.edu. Follow him on Twitter at @ryanchittum.