Deep Freeze: Iceland's Economic Collapse (LvMI)

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Deep Freeze: Iceland's Economic Collapse (LvMI)
Philipp Bagus (Author), David Howden (Author)
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Iceland

It was a modern, thriving economy one day, and then, suddenly, the food disappeared from the shelves, the banks closed, and the ships stopped arriving. Iceland in 2008 experienced an unprecedented economic meltdown that struck fear into the hearts of people all over the world. If it could happen there, it could happen anywhere.

The economic crisis led to a political crisis, with resignations galore. The whining and wailing about the disaster continues to this day, with most commentators blaming deregulation and the free market.

In Deep Freeze, economists Philipp Bagus and David Howden demonstrate that the real cause of the calamity was bad central-bank policy. Rates were way too low, banks were too big to fail, housing was implicitly guaranteed, and banks were borrowing short-term from abroad to finance long-term bonds.

The authors discuss the implications of this maturity mismatching, and they zero in on the central-bank policies that encouraged unsound practices. They demonstrate the cause and effect without a shadow of a doubt, using vast amounts of data and a detailed sector-by-sector look at the economy of Iceland.

What they find is another instance of the Austrian theory of the business cycle working itself out in a way that is customized for a time and place.

Toby Baxendale writes the introduction to this story that reads like a great novel. It serves as a reminder that central-banking policies aren't just about monetary arcana; they affect our lives in profound and sometimes catastrophic ways.

The Iceland freeze is one of the great historical cases that makes Mises's point. Let it always serve as a reminder of what happens when the laws of the market are papered over by politicians and central bankers.

This account is likely to remain the definitive one for many years.

To search for Mises Institute titles, enter a keyword and LvMI (short for Ludwig von Mises Institute); e.g., Depression LvMI

• Rank: #103297 in eBooks
• Published on: 2011-03-21
• Released on: 2011-03-21
• Format: Kindle eBook
• Number of items: 1

Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended

Reagan and Gorbachev: How the Cold War Ended
Jack Matlock (Author)
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Iceland

In Reagan and Gorbachev, Jack F. Matlock, Jr., gives an eyewitness account of how the Cold War ended, with humankind declared the winner. As Reagan’s principal adviser on Soviet and European affairs, and later as the U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R., Matlock lived history: He was the point person for Reagan’s evolving policy of conciliation toward the Soviet Union. Working from his own papers, recent interviews with major figures, and archival sources both here and abroad, Matlock offers an insider’s perspective on a diplomatic campaign far more sophisticated than previously thought, led by two men of surpassing vision.
Matlock details how, from the start of his term, Reagan privately pursued improved U.S.—U.S.S.R. relations, while rebuilding America’s military and fighting will in order to confront the Soviet Union while providing bargaining chips. When Gorbachev assumed leadership, however, Reagan and his advisers found a potential partner in the enterprise of peace. At first the two leaders sparred, agreeing on little. Gradually a form of trust emerged, with Gorbachev taking politically risky steps that bore long-term benefits, like the agreement to abolish intermediate-range nuclear missiles and the agreement to abolish intermediate-range nuclear missiles and the U.S.S.R.’s significant unilateral troop reductions in 1988.

Through his recollections and unparalleled access to the best and latest sources, Matlock describes Reagan’s and Gorbachev’s initial views of each other. We learn how the two prepared for their meetings; we discover that Reagan occasionally wrote to Gorbachev in his own hand, both to personalize the correspondence and to prevent nit-picking by hard-liners in his administration. We also see how the two men were pushed closer together by the unlikeliest characters (Senator Ted Kennedy and François Mitterrand among them) and by the two leaders’ remarkable foreign ministers, George Shultz and Eduard Shevardnadze.

The end of the Cold War is a key event in modern history, one that demanded bold individuals and decisive action. Both epic and intimate, Reagan and Gorbachev will be the standard reference, a work that is critical to our understanding of the present and the past.


From the Hardcover edition.

• Rank: #98390 in eBooks
• Published on: 2004-07-us.html
• Released on: 2004-07-us.html
• Format: Kindle eBook
• Number of items: 1