As the world unanimously goes “uh oh” after seeing the stock charts on Wall Street, Iceland becomes the first country to legitimately teeter on bankruptcy as they nationalize their major financial institutions. Apparently, some cool kids, with their cocky Viking swagger and rebelious attitude against Dad’s fishing business, decided to invest in some European retail businesses and soccer teams. And, they were able to convince the national banks to "go in on it" with them and finance their investments.

Well, when you’re the national bank, and you’re making these investments with foreign debt that’s worth 10 times the country’s GDP, you have to know that a reckoning is coming. And here it is, in the form of Vladmir Putin. It appears that deregulation was interpreted around the world as “my parents are away, lets throw a party”, but then those troublemakers showed up and started breaking mom’s collectible John McCain plates. This has created a serious financial crunch in Iceland, who now are in need of a bailout (wait, no, "rescue package") of their own.

Time for a Hot Geothermal Steam Bath

The financial crisis here and around the world gives us a chance to focus on one of Iceland’s most remarkable achievements. No matter what happens with the banking system, they will have no problem staying warm, powering their lights, or in many cases, powering their cars. Iceland produces nearly all of its electricity from hydroelectric and geothermal, and heats 90 percent of its buildings with steam from geothermal. With all the concerns of inflation, overextended financial sectors, Russians, and bailouts, we should all take a nice hot spring steam before we, as members of the world economy, band together and solve this crisis with smart recovery policies and innovative energy investments.