Iceland for Sale on Ebay; Will the U.S. Be Next?

Iceland has been suffering severe financial pangs in the past week, with the Washington Post reporting this morning that obtaining Euros or U.S. dollars there for international travel is nearly impossible. Iceland's government has taken over the largest bank on the island and the foreign exchange market has effectively closed. Viking helmet in hand, Iceland has been seeking aid from its Scandinavian neighbors as well as Russia and Britain in its effort to re-stabilize its economy, according to news reports. And then yesterday, there it was on e-bay: Iceland for sale.

News reports replete with screen captures of the ebay listing purported to verify the status of Iceland for sale. Reporters quipped that Iceland's greatest asset, Bjork, was not included in the sale, but plenty of volcanoes and glaciers were. Would be bidders were said to be asking about the availability of earthquake and volcano insurance.

The Iceland for sale notice was purportedly posted on ebay by none other than the President of Iceland himself, who allegedly justified the low asking price based on Iceland's decline in the space of a single year from the most developed country in the world to a level below Zimbabwe on the U.N.'s human development index.

The Iceland for sale listing bids topped $12,000 before the listing disappeared, as somehow you knew it would. Iceland for sale? Not a word about it on Iceland's official government website-not even as a humorous note, and it does sound like Iceland could use some humor right about now.

We Americans shouldn't spend too long laughing at Iceland and its prospects of being sold on e-bay. Our own country isn't too far behind. The news reports are pronouncing capitalism in its death throes with the U.S. government buying up the devalued assets of banks and contemplating bank nationalizations.

While bad news for citizens of the world, the prospect of entire countries being sold on ebay at bargain prices does have some creative appeal.

Just imagine the constituents of an ebay listing for a country with the diversity of the USA: