When Neil Armstrong took his small step from Apollo 11 and looked around, he probably thought, Wow, sort of like Iceland-even though the moon was nothing like Iceland. But then, he was a tourist, and a tourist can't help but have a distorted opinion of a place: he meets unrepresentative people, has unrepresentative experiences, and runs around imposing upon the place the fantastic mental pictures he had in his head when he got there. When Iceland became a tourist in global high finance it had the same problem as Neil Armstrong.
When Neil Armstrong stepped onto the moon during the Apollo 11 mission, he likely experienced a sense of wonder akin to visiting a new and exotic location, despite the stark differences between the moon's surface and Iceland. As a tourist, he may have viewed the moon through a lens shaped by preconceived notions, which can often skew perception. Tourists frequently have limited interactions and experiences that do not represent the entirety of a place, leading to an overly simplified understanding of it.
Similarly, Iceland's foray into global finance mirrored Armstrong’s lunar adventure. As the nation engaged with international monetary systems, it encountered distorted perceptions and expectations. Just as Armstrong's impression of the moon was influenced by his background and assumptions, Iceland's experience in the financial realm reveals how tourists to a new economic landscape can misinterpret and generalize their encounters, often overlooking the complexities and unique challenges present in the situation.
