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Episode 267: A New Mom And The President of Iceland

Heiða Dóra Jónsdóttir with Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the president of Iceland.
David Kestenbaum
/
NPR
Heiða Dóra Jónsdóttir with Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the president of Iceland.

In the spring of 2011, voters an Iceland had to decide whether to pick up the tab for mistakes bankers made before the financial crisis.

We visited Iceland just before the vote and met Heiða Dóra Jónsdóttir, a 29-year-old new mom. Heiða was trying to figure out how to vote so we set up interviews for her with a bunch of experts on the subject, including Iceland's president.

Heiða and the majority of Icelanders eventually voted "no" on the referendum, but the fight didn't end there. The British and Dutch governments took Iceland to court to try to recover money their citizens lost when an Icelandic bank failed.

On today's show: we revisit that story from 2011 and give an update on how the years-long, international, multi-billion-dollar battle turned out.

For more:

Read our post about the court case.

Read our Icelandic intern Baldur Hedinson's post, "Should I Pay For Bankers' Mistakes?"

NOTE: In the show we neglected to identify the lead council arguing the case for Iceland, he is Tim Ward with Monckton Chambers.

Download the podcast, or subscribe. Music: Tappi Tíkarrass's"Beri-Beri" and Egó's "Fjöllin Hafa Vakað." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook.

Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

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