Nordic Tiger

Think about that time in junior high when you were being picked on and, wildly flailing around, you accidentally hit your bully in the nose with your elbow. The bully started bleeding profusely and began crying. A hero-making turn for you. For about a week, all the other kids called you "killer." But a few days later, the same bully caught you in the bathroom and gave you the mother of all swirlies.

The story of the Nordic Tiger kind of goes like that...except, in this case, the nation of Iceland is the one with its head in the toilet.

During the 2000s, the tiny nation of Iceland, a little island way off the coast of Europe, with about 300,000 people on it, went through something of an economic miracle. Previously known only for Bjork songs and the fact that even Vikings didn't want to go there, the country became one of the success stories of the early 2000s. Helped by a booming financial segment, which bolstered the country's entire economy, it earned a nickname: "the Nordic Tiger."

But in the same way that your junior high moniker of "killer" only lasted that week, the Nordic Tiger didn't have long to roar. The 2008 financial crisis hit the country hard. In fact, Iceland was quietly one of the major losers in the global economic maelstrom.

The country's banking system collapsed, requiring massive government intervention. Meanwhile, Iceland sank into a significant economic downturn. Unemployment, which had gotten below 2.5% earlier in the year, spiked to more than 7% in the years following the crisis. Meanwhile, the country's stock exchange lost 90% of its value in the initial aftermath of the meltdown.