Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson read a paper on “Poverty in Iceland 1991–2004” at a meeting of the Association of Icelandic Historians 9 October 2012. There he analysed claims by Professor Stefan Olafsson that poverty had been more extensive in Iceland in 2003 than in the other Nordic countries, and that the distribution of income had become more uneven in Iceland in 2004 than in the other Nordic countries. He argued that neither claim was true. In fact, a survey made by the statistical office of the European Union and published in February 2007 showed that (relative) poverty was less in Iceland in 2003 than in any other European country with the exception of Sweden, and that the distribution of income in Iceland was in 2004 similar to that in the other Nordic countries. Professor Gissurarson argued, however, that the most important task was not to facilitate poverty, but to create opportunities to get out of it. His paper is available here on Youtube.

Gissurarson Slides 9.10.2012

Professor Thrainn Eggertsson

RNH organised an international  conference on “Fisheries: Sustainable and Profitable” Saturday 6 October 2012 at the University of Iceland, a part of the joint RNH-AECR project “Europe, Iceland and the Future of Capitalism”. Keynote speakers included the chief fisheries specialists of FAO, OECD and the World Bank, and three Icelandic internationally renowned specialists on fisheries: Arni Mathiesen, FAO, Gunnar Haraldsson, OECD, and Michael Arbuckle, World Bank, and Professors Ragnar Arnason, Rognvaldur Hannesson and Thrainn Eggertsson. Brian Carney, a member of the editorial board of the Wall Street Journal, and Dr. Michael De Alessi, an expert on marine technology, also participated in the programme. Mrs. Rakel Olsen who runs a a fishing company in Stykkisholmur opened the conference, and it was closed by Mrs. Gudrun Larusdottir who runs a fishing company in Hafnarfjordur. More information about the programme is here, and about the participants here.

Professor Ragnar Arnason. Photo Omar Oskarsson.

Thrainn Eggertsson tried, in his paper, to explain the opposition to the very successful and efficient Icelandic ITQ (individual tradable quota) system in the fisheries. He distinguished between the ideologists and materialists in the opposition and argued that the collapse of the banking sector in 2008 had rejuvenated the resentment of the wealth generated in the fisheries. Ragnar Arnason presented evidence and arguments  to the effect that the whole Icelandic nation benefited in many indirect ways from profitable fisheries, even if the holders of ITQs were not too numerous. About half the rent captured in the fisheries ended up with government already, in one way or another. Rognvaldur Hannesson and the other lecturers at the conference all agreed that an ITQ system like the present one in the Icelandic fisheries was the best solution in Iceland, while other kinds of system might apply elsewhere, for example TURFs, territorial use rights in fisheries.

In the audience: Dr. Asgeir Jonsson (partly seen), Professor Birgir Thor Runolfsson, Arni Mathiesen, former Fisheries Minister, Rakel Olsen, fishing vessel owner. Farthest to right in 2nd row: Professor Thorolfur Thorlindsson. Photo: Haraldur Gudjonsson.

The conference was well-attended and generated much media attention. Morgunbladid printed an interview 6 October with two of the lecturers, Dr. Gunnar Haraldsson and Professor Thrainn Eggertsson, who lamented the changes which the present Icelandic government is trying to force through on the well-functioning system of ITQs (individual transferable quotas) in the Icelandic fisheries. That same evening, Thrainn Eggertsson also appeared in the newshour of the television station, Stod tvo. Brian Carney wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal 9 October on the political threat to the ITQ system. He considered it almost suicidal if the present Icelandic government would for populist reasons impose inefficient changes on the system which had contributed so much to Iceland’s recovery. Morgunbladid printed an interview 11 October with Professor Ragnar Arnason and an interview 12 October with Professor Rognvaldur Hannesson who said that one should not kill the goose that laid the eggs of gold, as seemed to be the intention of the present Icelandic government. Vidskiptabladid also gave 13 October an account of of the conference.

Eggertsson Slides

Arnason Slides

Australian writer Anna Funder gave a talk 24 September 2012 at a meeting arranged by the Vigdis Finnbogadottir Institute of Foreign Languages at the University of Iceland, on both her book on daily life in East Germany, Stasiland, and her new novel, All That I Am, which takes place in Nazi Germany and England. Funder was also interviewed both in Morgunbladid 24 September and on television, in Kiljan, a weekly programme on literature, pretaped and broadcast 23 January 2013. Moreover, there was an account of her talk in student.is, an Internet student magazine at the University of Iceland, and a discussion of Stasiland on Radio Channel One, of the Icelandic Broadcasting Service, 14 October.

Anna Funder’s message and that of other participants in the RNH international conference on 22 September provoked much discussion, Professor Stefan Olafsson for example attempting to make fun of it, and Polish-born mathematician Pawel Bartozsek defending our right and our duty to discuss the fate of communism’s countless victims. Funder’s talk at the conference is available here on Youtube. Her visit to Iceland formed a part of a joint project by RNH and AECR, the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, on “Europe of the Victims: Remembering Communism”. Ms. Funder spoke about her Iceland tour to the Australian magazine The Monthly.