Iceland was the first. Which one is next up ? Some candidates: * South Korea: http://www.gmanews.tv/story/127773/South-Korea-braces-for-crisis-fallout * Pakistan: http://iht.com/articles/2008/10/18/asia/19zardari.php * Ukraine: http://globaleconomydoesmatter.blogspot.com/2008/10/ukraine-wobbles-as-financial-ground.html * Hungary: http://iht.com/articles/2008/10/19/europe/19hungary.php
other candidates, considering short-term bank debt compared to GDP: Great Britain - 156% Switzerland - 260% Belgium - 285% In other words, banks too big to be saved. Iceland was 211% http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/11/business/worldbusiness/11charts.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
90% of the world's countries are bankrupt. It's a race to see who can hang on the longest and take advantage of the rest of the world's misery.
These numbers are outdated. Belgiums biggest bank for instance has been dismantled already and taken over by BNP Paribas. Frances biggest bank who have little to none crap on their balance sheet. Swiss will be fina or they nationalise BIS and Britain has to run the printingpresses full speed or else all major currencies would collapse against the pound... Why not spend some of that mney to save a few banks.
hungary and ukraine will get IMF help. not sure what could happen with afghanistan. S. korea should hang on longer than the others i bet. the entire globe is going to have to cut back on spending until this mess clears. Even China, with their trillions in reserves, are scaling back, and trying to push more domestic spending by the populace vs spending on the global stage. (may go all the way back to 8% growth next year!). but even when countries do "collapse", usually just means they don't pay their debt and their currency get hammered. Doesn't necessarily mean the people starve or anything. it's happened to latin american countries many times since I've been alive (46 yrs). they always seem to bounce back. its happened to argentina a few times in just the past decade.
would you like to share with us your possible knowledge of how an individual can profit from another countries collapse? I knew a guy who made some money by buying property in cities that had recently been hit by a major earthquake like someone once said; I'd rather lend money to someone who has filed for bankruptcy in the last year than someone with a not so high FICO score