Mats Persson, Director of London think tank Open Europe, gave a talk 12 November on European integration, invited by RNH, the Institute of International Affairs at the University of Iceland and the Icelandic website Evropean Watch. Persson pointed out that the EU faced both political, economic and monetary crises. He argued that the authors of the euro project had been far too optimistic about one currency being feasible for different economies. Economic productivity in the PIIGS-countries, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain, was not as high as in Germany, the Netherlands and Finland. The PIIGS-countries had not lowered domestic costs in the same way as for example Estonia. It was, Persson said, interesting to compare the share of different clusters of states in World GDP: The US and the EU as a whole were slowly reducing their share, whereas the eurozone itself was reducing its share quite rapidly, and the BRICS-countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, were increasing their share. In many eurozone countries the economies were stagnant and unemployment high. The three options available were not good: 1) cost-cutting in the weaker countries and temporary support from the stronger ones; 2) greater centralisation in Brussels; 3) Greece and possibly other countries leaving the eurozone. Morgunbladid published an interview with Persson 12 September, and the same day Icelandic Broadcasting Corporation broadcast an interview with him. Persson’s talk will soon be available on Youtube.

Persson Slides

Photo: Mbl./Kristinn

Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson read a paper on “Mao: The Story Which Has Been Told” at a meeting organised by the Confucius Institute at the University of Iceland 2 November 2012. He gave an account of the controversy in Iceland about Jung Chang and Jon Halliday’s biography, Mao: The Unknown Story, published in a translation by Olafur Teitur Gudnason in 2007. Professor Gissurarson responded to several criticisms directed at the book by Geir Sigurdsson, a Chinese-speaking philosopher and former director of the Icelandic Confucius Institute, and historian Sverrir Jakobsson. According to Professor Gissurarson, the book was an extraordinary accomplishment, the criticisms of it being about minor details, mostly debatable, and not changing the main fact that Mao was one of the worst mass murderers of the Twentieth Century, comparable to Stalin and Hitler. Using the criteria laid down in the Nuremberg Trials, Mao was guilty of crimes against the peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Professor Gissurarson showed a video of Marshal Peng Dehuai—who had opposed Mao’s insane “Great Leap Forward”—being beaten and humiliated during the Cultural Revolution. Professor Gissurarson pointed out that much was already known about Mao’s crimes in Iceland: In 1952, for example, former missionary Johann Hannesson wrote a series of newspaper articles about mass executions in China after the communist victory in the civil war, and in 1963 private letters from an Icelandic student in China, Skuli Magnusson, to his fellow socialists, on the 1958–62 famine and Maoist terror, were published, without his consent. The lecture was well-attended, and will soon be available on Youtube. Former Justice Minister Bjorn Bjarnason blogged about it, and 10 November 2012 Morgunbladid reported on it.

Gissurarson Slides 02.11.2012

Professor Rasmussen giving his paper.

Professor Douglas Rasmussen of St. John’s University in New York gave a lecture at the House of National Culture Friday 26 October, on the occasion of the publication of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged in an Icelandic translation by Elin Gudmundsdottir. This publication was co-sponsored by RNH and AB Publishing Company. In his lecture, Rasmussen discussed the works and philosophy of Ayn Rand. According to him, Rand believed that the purpose of government was the protection of individual rights and that capitalism was neither amoral nor immoral, but a socio-economic order based on rights. She also strongly believed that each individual human being is an end in him- or herself, not a means to others, and that the aim of human life was human flourishing. In this way, Rand could be considered as a follower of Aristotle.  Rasmussen said that Rand was one of the most remarkable moral philosophers of the 20th Century, besides being a very popular novelist.

From Frettabladid 30 October 2012.

Mr. Asgeir Johannesson, chairman of the Icelandic Ayn Rand Association, introduced Professor Rasmussen and chaired the meeting. After the questions and answers, prominent Icelandic musicians gave a short concert, in the spirit of Ayn Rand, an ardent admirer of classical music. This was followed by a reception where Gisli Hauksson, chairman of the board of RNH, said a few final words. The lecture and the reception were well-attended, and a lot of copies of the Icelandic edition of Atlas Shrugged were sold. The website Andriki has published a blog on the book. The daily Frettabladid published 30 October 2012 a news item on the publication of Atlas Shrugged in Icelandic, also interviewing radio talk show Frosti Logason on Rand and her ideas. Vidskiptabladid, a business journal, published 3 November a news item on Rasmussen’s lecture. Morgunbladid published 13 November a review of Rand’s novel by journalist Helgi Vifill Juliusson. Rasmussen’s lecture can be watched here on Youtube, and Asgeir Johannesson’s opening remarks here.

From Morgunbladid 13 November 2012.

Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson gave a lecture at the University of Iceland 26 October 2012 on “What Political Economy Can Tell Us About Icelandic Money Smell”. This is the smell emitted by fish processing plants in fishing villages in Iceland. Professor Gissurarson contrasted the approaches of English economist A.C. Pigou and Nobel Laureate R.H. Coase to this and other problems of a similar kind, namely when the economic activity of one man created uncontracted costs or benefits for other people. Pigou wanted government to step in and solve the problem with some kinds of corrective taxes, whereas Coase held that often the problem was caused by high transaction costs which could be lowered by defining more clearly individual use or property rights. In the case of the Icelandic “Money Smell”, there were positive as well as negative effects of the economic activity in question, as the name suggests. However, recent developments seem to suggest the formation of some kinds of use rights to clean air.

Gissurarson Slides 26.10.2012