Canadian loonie

My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I read this headline: "Iceland Considers Adopting Canadian Loonie."

The loonie is otherwise known as the Canadian dollar.

Of course, gold would be a much a better choice as I'll explain later.

But the simple fact that this tiny nation of 330,000 is even thinking about using the Canadian dollar as its currency would have been unheard of just five short years ago.

After all, we live in a world that is literally littered with fiat money. In this world the U.S. dollar has been at the top of the heap.

That the loonie may be Iceland's top choice is just stunning.

But the fallout from the 2008 financial crisis has caused increasing doubt about the long-term health of the greenback.

And with trillions of fresh new Federal Reserve Notes issued since then, it would be hard to call the Fed a friend of the U.S. dollar.

Even the euro has taken its hits. The European banking crisis caused scores of former "euro fans" to bail from that major currency, too.

And it's no wonder.

The massive debt held by the "PIIGS" has compelled the European Central Bank (ECB) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to bail out these countries and scores of banks with trillions of euros.

Still, all of this printing is far from over...

Greece vs. Iceland: A Tale of Two Paths

The latest installment in Europe's pathetic financial soap opera was Greece's second bailout (of which there was never really any doubt). This latest rescue totals $170 billion from the European Union, ECB, and the IMF.

The result? Financial repression and riots in Athens that lead to some deaths.