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'Viking Bankers' Pillaged Iceland

How Iceland went from fishing to finance to ruin

By Katherine Thompson, Newser Staff

Posted Mar 5, 2009 2:48 AM CST

(Newser) – The bankers who ruined Iceland’s economy possessed the mentality of its fishermen—daring, aggressive, and devoted to the “lucky catch," Michael Lewis writes in Vanity Fair. It's no surprise—after all, they were the sons of fishermen whose massive profits helped modernize Iceland in the 1970s. But speculating on foreign currency is trickier than cod-fishing, writes Lewis, and now Iceland's women are furious over male folly.

“The financial culture is very male-dominated,” said Kristin Petursdottir, whose female-run financial firm still prospers. “It is a pool of sharks. Women just despise the culture.” Lewis' encounters with hard-drinking, confident men—who still believe in elves—seemed to confirm her beliefs. A visit to a Viking museum devoted to gruesome battle scenes completed the picture. "There are plenty of women," Lewis writes, "but this is a men’s history."

[Images (5)]

[Quotes (1)]

A protester holds a sign reading: "People get up and go" as thousands of people gather to protest the government's handling of the economy in Reykjavik earlier this year. (AP Photo/Brynjar Gauti)

Protesters burn an effigy of the Icelandic Prime Minister Geir Haarde during a demonstration earlier this year over the handling of the financial crisis in Reykjavik. (AP Photo/Thorvaldur Kristmundsson)

Unusual rock formations tower over a man walking on the black volcanic sands at the beach at Reynishverif, Iceland. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth, File)

This undated photo released by the Icelandic Tourist Board shows fishing boats in the Westfjords of Iceland. The entire country abandoned fishing for finance, to great cost. (AP Photo/Randall Hyman)

The Icelandic parliament building in Reykjavik. Iceland's previous conservative-led government failed after the country's banks collapsed. (AP Photo/Brynjar Gauti)

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The schools of engineering and math were offering courses on financial engineering. We had hundreds and hundreds of people studying finance. - Ragnar Arnason, a professor of fishing economics at the University of Iceland, whose students turned to investments

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'Viking Bankers' Pillaged Iceland