Making the USA look great.

As you may or may not know, Iceland is one of few places in the world that has made the USA look financially responsible and risk-averse during the turmoil of the last few years. Basically, Iceland privatized and monetized its fishing industry in the 1970s, and the new-found free time allowed the country to turn into "[...] a machine for turning cod into Ph.D.’s." Unfortunately, this led many (extremely overconfident) Icelandic men to jump into finance with no training or experience; hilarity ensued, if hilarity can be equated to financial and economic ruin.

I recommend reading this (admittedly lengthy) article by Michael Lewis, written for the April 2009 issue of Vanity Fair: "Wall Street on the Tundra." Aside from describing the logic behind the rise and fall of Icelandic financiers and banks, this article supplies what I always desire in travel writing: a picture not only of the beautiful scenery and buildings of a country, but also of the personalities and idiosyncrasies of the population.