No cash, please, we're Icelandic

One of the biggest social issues around here these days [almost as big as Magni and Eyrún's separation] is whether Iceland should ditch the króna and take up the Euro. There seems to be no end to the debate about this, and now one of the investment banks has taken the initiative and will be publishing its annual financial statements in Euros from now on, prompting speculation as to whether the other banks will follow suit.

Now, YT is no financial whiz. I will probably never understand the intricacies of currency and its implications for a national economy, and frankly this does not bother me. However, yesterday I was listening to the excellent news programme Spegillinn ['The Mirror'] on RÚV 1 and they had some expert on who was talking about the various options open to Iceland, in view of the fact that the króna is so unstable and whathaveyou. And one of those options was that we would switch to a cashless society. A society where cash would simply not be used. No cash. Nada. Just electronic transactions.

Now, it seems that the Icelandic economy is one of the most advanced in the world [if you want to call it that] when it comes to electronic transactions. This is a fact [confirmed by, er... someone]. Indeed, you only have to spend half a day here to figure that out - people use plastic [either debit or credit] for everything here, whether to buy a pack of gum at a concession stand, or to do their weekly grocery shopping. I mean, it borders on the ridiculous - particularly since the banks are raking it in by charging a fee for each transaction, and the average citizen has no idea how much he or she pays in transaction fees each year.

Also ubiquitous is online banking. It is an absolutely integral part of life over here. Personally I cannot remember what the world was like before online banking. As a self-employed freelancer I don't remember the last time I received a cheque in the mail - I simply send invoices to my clients and they transfer payment to my account. Similarly, I transfer AAH's allowance to her account, and she pays for her cokes and Subway sandwiches with her debit card. And I don't even open my bills any more when they come in the mail - I simply log on to my online bank and they're listed there already. All I have to do is click on a little calendar to say when I want them to be paid, and presto - on that date, the invoice amount is automatically debited from my account. And if I choose to go through my bank's collection service instead of sending invoices in the mail, I can simply enter the amount on a special online form, click the mouse, and the next day that invoice shows up in my client's online bank, all ready to be paid.

So while I found the idea of a cashless economy initially very bizarre, the more I thought about it, the more sense it makes. We're almost there already. Indeed, the first thing that came into my head that might constitute a 'problem' was - what will the poor tourists do?

WINTER HAS RETURNED...
It has been snowing all day and snow is now thick on the ground. It's beautiful, in fact. It really came down hard - around noon everything went kind of dark like the end of the world was nigh, and a few minutes later I looked out the window and there was just this wall of white. I even went for a run in it and let me tell you: the seashore has an eerie kind of beauty when everything is white except for the charcoal sky, the steel-blue ocean, and the black rocks poking out from the blanket of snow. For good measure there was a flock of pitch black ravens hanging out near one of the garbage bins en route, black dots on a white background. Beautiful. Right now the wind is picking up, the weather is due to get worse, and it's -4°C. My sunrise/sunset calendar is in the other room and I'm too lazy to go get it, but it's approximately the same as yesterday, give or take three or so minutes.