It seems the ruthless rich can breathe a bit easier on this, the first day of 2009 - the year-end Guillotine Index (GAX) was cleaved 50% (-1.0) to +1.0, a record low for the index that got rolling just three weeks ago. But the lone story that composes this week's index should axe any notion that we'll see a GAX of zero; it's a doozy!
With inflation running at 18%, Icelanders are suffering the bloody edge of the global financial meltdown. Orn Svavarsson, 57, who sold his health food business three years ago and invested in the stock market, has been wiped out. He says "For the first time in my life I have sympathy with the Bolsheviks; with the French revolutionaries who put up the guillotine."
Basis for the 12/31/08 GAX:
Iceland Gives Christmas Frosty Reception, from the blog of Dollars & Sense, The Magazine of Economic Justice.
Information on the origin of the Guillotine Index (symbol ^GAX) can be found here.