A speculative column appearing on Vísir.is points out that billionaire George Soros has enough money to buy Iceland.
Long-time friend of Grapevine Óli Tynes compared the GDPs of a number of countries with the incomes of some of the world’s wealthiest individuals. He found, for example, that Bill Gates could buy Costa Rica’s 48 billion dollar GDP, that Warren Buffet could buy North Korea’s 40 billion dollar GDP, that Michael Bloomberg could buy Zambia’s 17.5 billion dollar GDP, and lastly, that George Soros could handily afford Iceland’s 12.7 billion dollar GDP. “The question is whether he has an interest in it,” Tynes concludes.
Foreign investment – or foreign exploitation – of Iceland has been on the minds of a lot of Icelanders lately, especially as more companies from abroad express an interest in Iceland’s natural resources. The possibility of joining the EU also brings up the question of how other countries plan on “utilising” the country.
It should be noted that it’s not actually possible to “buy” a country in the direct sense. You can, however, give a country in dire economic trouble a tremendous loan with prohibitively high interest rates and thereby make them beholden to you and any intentions you might have in exploiting their natural resources.