Iceland's become the second country to default on loans... this time not to the IMF, but to Britain and the Netherlands, for funds supplied by those countries when 'Icesave' failed in 2008..
It actually went to a referendum, as to whether this money should be repaid... 58% voted 'no'...42% said the money's owed, and we should honour the agreement..
This will now go to an international court, and with 4 billion Euro's at stake, the arguments will be vitriolic...

It's going to be somewhat of a lottery as to which Eurozone country will fold it's hands, and say it can't meet the interest payments on it's bailout funds..
With Spain's economy teetering on the edge, it must become questionable to the IMF as to just how far it's resources can be stretched..
If all of Europe's flagging economies fail, and in those France is included, then what can be the future of a single currency? The idea originally was to allow free trade and passage of workers between the allied countries, but this has nor come to pass.. As the economies of those nations which were prosperous before the fall of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mack begin to flag, and as automotive plants shut around the US and Canada for lack of parts from Japan, what will the CEO's of these various big companies, let alone those of the downstream industries, be planning..?
Britain, thankfully, did not join in accepting the Euro, but the Pound Sterling is losing ground against the Euro, in an attempt to make British goods more affordable for those on a strapped continent.. Eventually the Pound will have to take it's place as perhaps the most stable currency in Europe, and that's going to hit British industry, hard..
Germany's a step away from pulling out of the Euro..it's voters not at all pleased with the amount they're pouring into 'recovery loans', most of which will remain unpaid..
And while the IMF is a coalition of 140 or so countries, those members the likes of Canada and the US are steering clear of offering funds to European nations under the gun.. It's original mandate was to provide aid to countries hot by natural disasters, or insurrection.. not to bail, out banks which now find themselves far overextended in insecure debts..
It's amazing, that banks throughout the Eurozone, including Britain, are still handing out year end bonuses to anyone connected with an institution which was forced to ask for government money.. The taxpayer is starting to wonder why these sums are not being fed back into the Exchequer, to help bring down the rate of quantitative easing.. The man on the street is feeling the pinch, because Portugal, Greece, and Eire are either defaulting, or asking for even more financial aid..
One wonders how long this can go on...

Japan says it has..temporarily at least, stopped the pumping of radioactive water into the sea.. and this has China and South Korea breathing a little slower as the threat of contamination of their waters diminishes...
However, they're still pumping water into the reactors to keep the frozen rods cool, and liquid nitrogen to avert another hydrogen explosion which would send the radioactive waste airborne..
Japan's economy is so intertwined with that of so many countries, that this disaster, the worst since Chernobyl.. will have even more knock on effects globally...
We're knee deep in it now.. and the future does not appear to be positive...