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"So what happened?" asks New York Times neoliberal op-ed columnist Thomas Friedman, ruminating about the fate of Iceland, whose citizens are now in hock to the tune of $300,000 each as a result of their country's banking meltdown: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/19/opinion/19friedman.html?em (subscription required).
What Friedman doesn't mention is that since 1991, Iceland has been in the grip of right-wing disciples of Friedman voodoo economics (that's Milton Friedman as in the Chicago School of laissez-faire economic doctrine, no relation).
These true believers deregulated Iceland's financial industry, creating an international banking haven that thrived -- when times were good -- by acting like an enormous hedge fund, investing depositors' money in recklessly leveraged mortgage-backed securities.
So what did happen? A few bankers got rich, a few giant banks went bust, and the good citizens of Iceland are left holding the bag. Sound familiar?
Never mind, Friedman has a suitably scriptural answer to his own rhetorical question: "globalization giveth" and "globalization taketh away," and "now, we have to hope, that globalization will saveth."
That's the spirit: build a brand new squeaky-clean world on a blank-slate economic creed that's never been validated by any society in history, and hope for the best.
