Iceland President Says Let Banks Go Bankrupt

January 25, 2013 from Al Jazeera English

Iceland President Olafur Ragnar Grimsson tells Al Jazeera's Stephen Cole that Europe should let banks that are ran "irresponsibly" go bankrupt. Speaking at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, Grimsson also held his country as a model of economic recovery after its near-collapse four years ago. "We didn't follow the traditional prevailing orthodoxies. And the end result four years later is that Iceland is enjoying progress and recovery."

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Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson

Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson is the fifth President of Iceland, having served since 1996; he was unopposed in 2000, re-elected for a third term in 2004, re-elected unopposed for a fourth term in 2008 and re-elected for a record fifth term in 2012. Explore this topic

Davos

Davos is a municipality in the district of Prättigau/Davos in the canton of Graubünden, Switzerland. It has a permanent population of 11,131. Davos is located on the Landwasser River, in the Swiss Alps, between the Plessur and Albula Range. At 1,560 m, it is the highest city i... Explore this topic

World Economic Forum

The World Economic Forum is a Swiss non-profit foundation, based in Cologny, Geneva. It describes itself as an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging business, political, academic and other leaders of society to shape g... Explore this topic

Iceland

Iceland is a Nordic European island country situated at the confluence of the North Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. The country has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km², which makes it the most sparsely populated country in Europ... Explore this topic

Global Financial Crisis

The financial crisis of 2007–2008, also known as the Global Financial Crisis and 2008 financial crisis, is considered by many economists to be the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It resulted in the threat of total collapse of large financial ins... Explore this topic

Icelandic financial crisis

The 2008–2011 Icelandic financial crisis was a major economic and political crisis in Iceland that involved the collapse of all three of the country's major privately owned commercial banks, following their difficulties in refinancing their short-term debt and a run on deposit... Explore this topic

Bank

A bank is a financial institution and a financial intermediary that accepts deposits and channels those deposits into lending activities, either directly by loaning or indirectly through capital markets. A bank is the connection between customers that have capital deficits and... Explore this topic

European sovereign debt crisis

The European sovereign debt crisis is an ongoing financial crisis that has made it difficult or impossible for some countries in the euro area to repay or re-finance their government debt without the assistance of third parties. In 1992, members of the European Union signed th... Explore this topic

Economic recovery

An economic recovery is the phase of the business cycle following a recession, during which an economy regains and exceeds peak employment and output levels achieved prior to downturn. A recovery period is typically characterized by abnormally high levels of growth in real gro... Explore this topic

Bankruptcy

Bankruptcy is a legal status of a person or organization that cannot repay the debts it owes to creditors. In most jurisdictions, bankruptcy is imposed by a court order, often initiated by the debtor. Bankruptcy is not the only legal status that an insolvent person or organiza... Explore this topic

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Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson

Davos

World Economic Forum

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