ABSTRACT
The population had twice as much disposable income as the European Union’s average in 2006. The world economy was over-expanded and over-financialized, but also deregulated and thus overspeculative and risky. The American Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz stated the financial crisis that flooded the globe had a clear “Made in the United States of America (USA)” label on it. The small island country Iceland became a textbook example. Whereas the fishing industry had formerly dominated, in the early twenty-first century, Iceland became a banking giant. The economic crisis of the newly accepted former communist countries was not a great challenge for the European Union. The countries of the Mediterranean region and Ireland – which have gained the pejorative nickname Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain (PIIGS) – represented a much bigger problem. The equity market lost half of its value, and the car industry suffered tremendous losses.
