Prof. Gissurarson at Manhattanville College.

RNH Academic Director, Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson, gave a lecture at a conference on economic freedom in Manhattanville College, Purchase, New York, 8–9 April 2016, on economic freedom in Iceland 930–2016. He discussed the institutions of the Icelandic Commonwealth, including the choice between chieftains (or protection agencies), and grazing rights in the mountain pastures which solved to some extent the common pool problem. He also tried to explain why the Icelanders suffered hunger and famines for centuries even if there was plenty of fish in the Icelandic waters. Furthermore, he analysed the Icelandic system of individual transferable quotas in the fisheries which has made them both sustainable and profitable, unlike fisheries in most other countries. Last year, the University of Iceland Press published Professor Gissurarson’s The Icelandic Fisheries: Sustainable and Profitable. Finally, Professor Gissurarson briefly compared the market capitalism developed in Iceland in 1991–2004 and the crony capitalism replacing it, contributing to the complete collapse of the banking sector in 2008.

At the conference, Professor Gissurarson participated in a panel on money and central banks with Dr. Warren Coats, former head of the SDR (Special Drawing Rights) section of the IMF, Dr. Arthur Gandolfi, former Citibank Vice President, and Professor James Lothian of Fordham University, who served for two and a half decades as Editor of the Journal of International Money and Finance. Professor Gissurarson gave an account of his experience as a member of the Overseeing Board of the Central Bank of Iceland in 2001–9 and shared his conclusions about the proper monetary order for a small and open economy like Iceland. Gissurarson’s participation in the conference formed a part of the joint project of RNH and AECR, the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, on “Europe, Iceland, and the Future of Capitalism”.

Prof. Lothian of Fordham, Dr. Gandolfi of Citibank, Dr. Coats of the IMF og Prof. Gissurarson. Lothian and Coats both received their Ph.Ds in monetary economics under Milton Friedman.

Gissurarson Slides in Manhattanville 8 April 2016

RNH Academic Director, Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson, gave a lecture at the Icelandic-American Chamber of Commerce in New York 7 April 2016, on Iceland and the Anglo-Saxon Powers. Professor Gissurarson described the relationship between Iceland and Great Britain from 1412 when the first English fishing vessels appeared in Icelandic waters until 2008 when the British Labour government invoked an anti-terrorism law against Iceland and brought about, or at least contributed to, the Icelandic bank collapse. He discussed a few Britons who had an impact on Icelandic history, including Sir Joseph Banks, a great friend and benefactor of Iceland, Sir Eric Cable, British Consul during the First World War (who practically ruled the country), and two Labour leaders, Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling, and the actions that the two of them took against Iceland. Professor Gissurarson also analysed the relationship between Iceland and the United States, the 1941 Defence Agreement (whereby a US military force replaced the UK occupation force), the 1951 Defence Treaty (which established a US military base in Iceland), the 2006 departure of the US military force and the almost total lack of interest shown since then by US officials about the fate of Iceland. His conclusion was that nevertheless Iceland should seek closer cooperation with her neighbours in the North Atlantic, the US, Canada, Norway and the UK.

After the lecture, Professor Gissurarson attended a dinner with Einar Gunnarsson, Icelandic Ambassador to the UN, prominent banker Thor Thors (son of Thor Thors, longtime Icelandic Ambassador to the US) and others. Ambassador Gunnarsson was Permanent Secretary in the Icelandic Foreign Office during the bitter dispute between Iceland and the UK in 2009–10. The lecture formed a part of the joint project by RNH and AECR, the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, on “Europe, Iceland, and the Future of Capitalism”.

St. Thomas Aquinas

RNH Academic Director, Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson, attended the annual meeting of APEE, Association of Private Enterprise Education, in Las Vegas 3–6 April 2016, where he chaired one session and gave a lecture in another, about business ethics. Professor Gissurarson discussed the position of St. Thomas Aquinas who taught that merchants did not have to inform their customers of their own evaluation of circumstances (in the famous tale of the merchant from Alexandria on the island of Rhodes), but that they should not, on the other hand, make use of desperate circumstances (such as a city under siege) in order to achieve unfair outcomes. In this connection, Gissurarson described how Norwegian, Finnish and Danish financiers had, after the Icelandic bank collapse, acting in collusion with their respective governments, acquired assets of the fallen Icelandic banks for a pittance, Glitnir Bank and Glitnir Securities in Norway, Glitnir Pankki in Finland and FIH Bank in Denmark. Gissurarson argued that the behaviour of these financiers would have been deemed immoral by St. Thomas.

Economist Gerald O’Driscoll, former Vice President of the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, was elected President of APEE. Board members include Professor Robert Lawson who had visited Iceland on the invitation of RNH and given a paper on the index of economic freedom. Gissurarson’s lecture in Las Vegas formed part of the joint project by RNH and AECR, the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, on “Europe, Iceland, and the Future of Capitalism”.

Gissurarson Slides Las Vegas 5 April 2016

Prof. Gissurarson at Rockford University.

RNH Academic Director, Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson, gave three lectures in the United States in the spring of 2016, comparing the Nordic economies in Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Iceland on the one hand and the Nordic economies in Minnesota, Manitoba and South Dakota on the other hand (leaving out the oil-rich states of Norway and North Dakota). Living standards turned out to be significantly better in the Nordic economies of North America. Professor Gissurarson argued that this was because in North America more opportunities were available to produce oneself out of poverty. It was true, he submitted, that the Nordic nations in Europe had managed to develop an attractive system of affluence and security, but that this had happened despite, but not because of, high taxes and efforts at redistributing income. It should be emphasised that the Nordic economies were open and relatively free, protected by the rule of law.

The lectures were held at the University of Indiana in Bloomington 30 March, at the Heartland Institute in Chicago 31 March and at Rockford University 1 April. They formed a part of a “Free Market Road Show” organised by Dr. Barbara Kolm of the Austrian Economics Centre in Vienna. The lectures also formed part of the joint project by RNH and AECR, the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, on “Europe, Iceland, and the Future of Capitalism”. The seminar at the Heartland Institute was taped:

Gissurarson Slides Bloomington 29 March 2016

From left: Prof. Gretar E. Eythorsson, Prof. Gissurarson, Canadian Ambassador Stuart Wheeler, and Dr. Gudni Th. Johannesson.

RNH Academic Director, Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson, gave a lecture 19 March 2016 at a conference at Akureyri University on international affairs. According to him, foreign powers only took interest in Iceland for a brief period of history, while it was true that their fishing vessels had for centuries been operating in the fertile Icelandic waters and had been reluctant to leave when Iceland extended her fisheries limits. Iceland had for a while been strategically important as a consequence of new technology in warfare, submarines, airplanes and weather forecasts, both in the Second World War and in the Cold War. This had changed after the collapse of communism. It had become apparent in the 2008 international financial crisis that the Anglo-Saxon powers had lost interest in Iceland. Nevertheless, Iceland’s place was in the North Atlantic and her natural allies remained Norway, the United Kingdom, Canada and the US.

The many speakers at the conference included Dr. Gudni Th. Johannesson, Associate Professor of History, on relations between Iceland and the US in 1976–91, Professor Eirikur Bergmann on the Icesave Dispute between Iceland and the UK, and Bjorn Bjarnason, former Minister of Justice, on the pursuit of a new balance of powers in Northern Europe. Gissurarson’s participation in the conference formed a part of the joint project of RNH and AECR, the European Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists, on “Europe, Iceland, and the Future of Capitalism”.

Glærur HHG á Akureyri 19. mars 2016

Prof. Gissurarson and fmr. Minister Jonasson.

RNH Academic Director, Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson, gave a talk at a political seminar for Young Left Greens 5 March 2016 on whether Iceland was too small to be sustainable as an independent political unit, as some had claimed after the 2008 bank collapse. Professor Gissurarson described many advantages which small states enjoyed, explaining their proliferation after the Second World War. By means of free trade such states could benefit from the international division of labour and from economies of scale, without developing the lethargic, clumsy and non-transparent bureaucracies of many bigger states. Small states did not need shelters that turned into traps: rather, they needed free trade with the rest of the world, flourishing mutual relations and defence arrangements with bigger states: Iceland should for example pursue such arrangements now with the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Norway.

The other speaker at the seminar was former Left Green Minister Ogmundur Jonasson. After their talks a lively discussion followed, not least about justice in income distribution and about increased consumer choice in health. Gissurarson’s participation in the seminar formed a part of the joint project by RNH and AECR, the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, on “Europe, Iceland, and the Future of Capitalism”.

Gissurarson Slides Left Green seminar 5 March 2016