Bankrupt Iceland is taking “jingle mail” to a new level. Rather than post keys through the letterbox and leave an over-mortgaged home, a third of Icelanders say they want to leave their over-mortgaged country. This is globalisation in reverse: when international capital departs a country, labour wants to go with it.

The reasons for Icelanders’ despair are spelled out in the country’s bail-out package. The economy is expected to shrink by a 10th next year, unemployment to triple and interest rates, at 18 per cent, to rise further. Government indebtedness will almost quadruple as the state shells out about $19bn to recapitalise the country’s banks and honour foreign deposits, largely with money borrowed from abroad. Icelandic pension and money market funds exposed to bankrupt “viking” banks will suffer, as will foreign creditors. They hold about $3bn of domestic bonds, but currency controls – in place since the crisis began and expected to remain next year – are a barrier to repatriation. The International Monetary Fund, rightly, is not in the business of financing capital flight.