Thor

"On a fateful day in 1978, a knock came at the door. Dad was in his study and a few men went in to sit with him. One of them was in the kitchen speaking to my mother. The atmosphere was sombre, but I found it hard to understand just how serious things were because I knew all the men from happy social occasions in our home. They were cool guys, with long sideburns. One of them came into my room and removed his glasses. The rims were so thick and heavy that they left a wide red line across the bridge of his nose. He looked me in the eye and asked if my Dad had ever been bad to me. ‘No,’ I replied. When Dad was drunk, he fell asleep. The man asked me if I was sad when Dad went drinking. I hesitated and said ‘yes’. He took me into the living room to sit down with my father and mother and the other men and explained that they were discussing whether Dad should go to a nice hospital for a few weeks to stop him drinking again. He then asked me: ‘What do you think Thor? Would you like Daddy to stop drinking?’ All eyes fell on me and I was surprised that they were asking me and that everyone was listening carefully for my answer. I said: ‘Yes, I would,’ and the room went quiet as my words sank in."

"Perhaps ‘bubble’ is an exaggeration, but within a very short period in the 19th century the number of sheep in Iceland doubled from 400,000 to 800,000. Everyone in Iceland was affected. It changed the nature of farming, making ever-increasing production its goal. It brought substantial amounts of money into the country and changed the nature of finance. By paying farmers to keep his sheep, Thor was in a sense like the derivatives traders of today, as he was really betting on the selling price come autumn. If high, he turned a profit. If low, he was protecting the farmers from losses."