Steve Gilbert reports that Iceland is about to renege on billions owed to Britain and the Netherlands leaving those countries no recourse but to cut off further loans to that country.

Six out of 10 Icelandic voters plan to reject a bill on repayment of more than $5 billion owed to Britain and the Netherlands in a referendum on the so-called Icesave deal, according to a poll published by an Icelandic daily on Saturday.

Iceland's parliament authorized on Friday the government to hold a referendum no later than March 6 on terms under which Reykjavik will repay the money lost in high-interest Icesave bank accounts during a financial meltdown in 2008.

And he reminds this how the brilliant Robert F Kennedy, Jr. touted this country as an exemplar to the world (when he wasn't working hand in hand with Venezuela's Chavez:

Mind you, this is the same Iceland that our moral betters, such as Robert Kennedy Jr., were touting as a ‘green' economic powerhouse. We were supposed to model our economy on Iceland's. Funny how we don't hear anything about that now.

I guess when you live high on the hog on a tax free trust in Tahiti you develop a different concept of what constitutes an "economic powerhouse".

Clarice Feldman