Iceland is a Nordic free-market democracy with glacier-covered volcanoes and hyperactive geysers. If you're into mind-bendingly complex song lyrics, there's Bjork and Sigur Ros. In the rarefied world of global finance, Iceland is also where local pols and central bankers trample on the interests of bondholders like a herd of marauding reindeer. At least that's the perspective of foreign bondholders and distressed asset hedge funds hoping to recoup their investments in three Icelandic lenders-Landsbanki Islands, Glitnir Bank, and Kaupthing Bank-that defaulted on $85 billion in debts in 2008.
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