Back in October, Harper’s published a feature from writer Rebecca Solnit called "News from nowhere: Iceland’s polite dystopia." The article’s focus was effectively that in a country where pretty much everyone is the same (in fact, almost all related), nothing was really going on. Some disputes about the country’s heart and soul, and various existential ennui; but not much change.

What a difference a month or two makes – now Iceland is all drama all the time, according to a dispatch in today’s Wall Street Journal about the collapse of the country’s coalition government:

Iceland becomes the second European nation to lose its government in the global crisis — Belgium’s resigned last month after a scandal involving aid to a fallen bank. It is perhaps the world’s hardest hit: Last fall, three big banks — virtually the entire banking system — collapsed, and the island’s currency went into freefall.

The twin currency and banking crises have caused a startlingly swift reversal of fortune for Icelanders, per capita once one of the world’s wealthiest people. Today, inflation and unemployment are soaring, debt is mounting and the banking sector that provided cushy jobs and fueled a consumption boom has vanished.

It’s funny how fortunes turn.

Why sympathize with this? He had better options?

It’s possible to feel some sympathy for the governor in all of this. It’s not like he asked for Kennedy to decide it was time to join her uncle Ted in the Senate – or for the ensuing arm-twisting campaign on her behalf by the most powerful Democrats in Washington.

The Consequences of Paterson’s Bungling | The New York Observer.

Taking back the country one coffee shop at a time:

An entrepreneur from Indiana (which President Obama won by 1.04 percent) is raising capital to start franchising his conservative coffee shop and “give conservatives a place to feel comfortable and rally around their values.”

All the TVs are tuned to Fox News, and there are four blends on offer: Radical Right, Conservative, Moderate, and Liberal (aka decaf).

Coffee Goes Conservative – News Blog – Daily Brief – Portfolio.com.

I guess no one is gonna put their money in here anymore:

A fund controlled by Santander, one of Europe’s biggest banks, heaped praise on Bernard Madoff weeks before his arrest for an alleged $50bn fraud, calling his market timing “impeccable” in a report to investors that lawyers say raises questions about the bank’s risk controls.

Asset managers at the Spanish bank’s Optimal hedge fund investment arm, whose clients were among the biggest losers in the Madoff scandal, told institutional investors they were impressed by Mr Madoff’s ability “to find great entry and exit points to benefit investors”.

FT.com / Companies / Financial Services – Santander fund praised ‘impeccable’ Madoff.

2010, that is.  It’s going to be a bad year for New York Democrats:

If Mr. Paterson was hoping to quiet the tumult over the selection process by picking Ms. Gillibrand, there were indications that he may not get his wish. Ms. Gillibrand, who has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association, is controversial among some of the party’s more liberal leaders downstate.

Representative Carolyn McCarthy, a Long Island Democrat and ardent gun control activist, said Thursday that if Ms. Gillibrand got the job, she was prepared to run against her in a primary in 2010. Ms. McCarthy was elected to Congress after her husband was killed in a gunman’s rampage on the Long Island Rail Road in 1993.

Paterson Picks Gillibrand for Senate – NYTimes.com.