Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson, a member of RNH’s Academic Council, gave a lecture on the 2008 Icelandic bank collapse at the Freedom Summit of European Young Conservatives in Cambridge 22 September 2013. Gissurarson agreed with one of the main conclusions in the report by the Special Investigation Commission on the bank collapse, appointed by the Icelandic parliament, that in the Icelandic banking sector a special and additional systemic risk had been created by the debt accumulation of some of the banks’ owners, in particular the Baugur Group under the leadership of Jon Asgeir Johannesson. Another systemic risk, special to the Icelandic banking sector, was that its field of operations was much bigger than what ultimately proved to be its area of institutional support. While those two systemic risks made the Icelandic banking sector vulnerable, Gissurarson pointed out that three crucial decisions then made had not been adequately explained: Why did the US Federal Reserve System make currency swap deals with all the Scandinavian central banks—essentially a license to print dollars—refusing a similar deal with the Icelandic central bank? Why did the British Labour government close the two Icelandic-owned banks in London at the same moment as it bailed out all other banks in England, including banks under investigation for money laundering and libor rate-fixing and excessive management benefits? Why did the Labour government then use the British anti-terrorism law against Icelandic institutions (briefly the Central Bank) and companies (Landsbanki), thus virtually cutting Iceland off from the rest of the world?

From left: Karitas Olafsdóttir, Hannes, Aslaug Arna Sigurbjornsdottir and Hilmar Freyr Kristinsson.

Professor Gissurarson mentioned some reasons why there was hostility to the Icelandic banks in neighbouring countries. The British Secret Service, MI5, had for example investigated the bank owners because of suspicion that they had been laundering Russian mafia money. No evidence was found substantiating this.  The Secretary of the Treasury, Alistair Darling, has stated in his memoirs that some Icelandic bankers had been generous donors to the British Conservative Party. Gissurarson said that he had searched for evidence of this, but not found any. Many city councils controlled by the Labour Party had kept their money in Icesave accounts, operated by one of the Icelandic banks, and the Labour government was presumably under pressure from them when the banks became vulnerable. The main explanation, however, was doubtlessly that the Icelandic banks had been tough competitors on the European financial markets. The financial establishment in Europe and probably North America too had concluded that the Icelandic banks had to be taken down, as an example to the rest, just as Lehman brothers had not been rescued two weeks before the Icelandic collapse. Gissurarson made clear that he was not defending the Icelandic banks, only pointing out that many big banks elsewhere in Europe would have collapsed, if they had not been rescued by currency swap deals made with the American Fed, for example Danske Bank in Denmark and UBS and Credit Suisse in Switzerland. Professor Gissurarson added that he did not believe in bank bailouts at whichever cost. For example, Irish taxpayers now were saddled with an enormous burden from their government having guaranteed all the obligations of their banks.

The Freedom Summit was held on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of European Young Conservatives. The Icelandic Young Independents had been one of the founding associations. The then-leaders of the Young Independents had agreed with the Young Conservatives in the United Kingdom and others that many youth organisations in Europe were too dependent on the Brussels bureaucracy. Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was the protector of EYC, and David Oddsson, Prime Minister of Iceland 1991–2004, served as one of its honorary presidents. Tim Dier is the present chairman of EYC. Daniel Hannan, a long-time friend of Iceland, MEP and the secretary of AECR, the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists, gave the keynote speech at the Freedom Summit dinner Saturday 21 September. Another long-time friend of Iceland, Andrew Rosindell, MP, gave the closing remarks Sunday 22 September. Rosindell was the first chairman of EYC. He has often visited Iceland and has many Icelandic friends. In his remarks, he pointed out that the EYC logo was an Icelandic swallow flying, the symbol of freedom. The founders of EYC did not want the traditional EU ring of stars. Eight representatives of the Icelandic Young Independents came to the Freedom Summit. They were shown the Churchill archives, kept in Churchill College, which was the Summit venue. AECR was the main supporter of the summit where 120 representatives of 37 countries came together. The participation of Professor Gissurarson in this event forms a part of the joint RNH-AECR project on “Europe, Iceland and the Future of Capitalism”.

Professor Gissurarson discussed his findings about the bank collapse on the popular radio show “Harmageddon” Wednesday 25 September, where his hosts were Frosti Logason and Mani Petursson.

Photo: Haraldur Guðjónsson

Matthew Elliott, who founded the British Taxpayers’ Alliance, gave a talk at a well-attended meeting of RNH and the Icelandic Taxpayers’ Alliance Friday 20 September 2013. The author of several books critical of oppressive taxes and the waste of taxpayers’ money, Elliott briefly described the foundation and operation of the TPA, an independent grassroots organisation comprising about 80,000 people, making a huge impact on British politics. He argued that taxes had to be moderate and simple, adding that there were ample opportunities to save money by eliminating waste, and without cutting essential government services to the really needy. He said that his favourite example of government waste was that in one of the office buildings of the British parliament, ten trees had been put up for no less than £400,000. Elliott reminded the audience that a grassroots organisation had to focus on simple and intelligible examples, bringing the real problem closer to people so that they could relate to them.

In his successful visit to Iceland, Elliott also talked about public policy reforms at a meeting held by the Independence Party Saturday 21 September. Gunnlaugur Snaer Olafsson of the Youth Against EU Membership conducted an online interview with Elliott, now available on Youtube. There, Elliott described the waste and corruption in Brussels where the bureaucrats were mostly tax-free. He pointed out that the EU funded a huge propaganda machine. Morgunbladid published an interview with Elliott 19 September. There, he said that the European nations would find themselves at crossroads after the German parliamentary elections: Some would like to go further in integrating Europe, others wanted to maintain their national identity and sovereignty. The United Kingdom was, like Norway and Iceland, situated in the outer belt, so to speak, of Europe. The online magazine Andriki published a news item about the meeting with Elliott 20 September. The business magazine Vidskiptabladid gave an account of Elliott’s talk 20 September and also published an online interview with Elliott on its website. The meeting with Elliott formed a part of the joint RNH-AECR programme on “Europe, Iceland and the Future of Capitalism”. This meeting was also the first event in a research project on taxes jointly undertaken by RNH and the Icelandic Taxpayers’ Alliance. The next two events will be Monday 14 October in the ceremonies hall (hatidasalur) of the University of Iceland, 17–19, where arguments against a special resource rent tax will be discussed, and Monday 4 November in N-131 in Askja, the Natural Sciences House of the University of Iceland, 12–13, where Dr. Daniel Mitchell of Cato Institute will discuss the evidence for the Laffer Curve.

Photo: Ólafur Engilbertsson.

At a well-attended meeting at the Icelandic National Library Monday 16 September 2013, Dr. Andreja Valic Zver, director of the Study Centre for National Reconciliation in Ljubljana, Slovenia, gave a lecture on the importance of remembering victims of totalitarianism in Europe. She reminded the audience of the fact that Slovenia suffered, in the 20th Century, the rule of fascists, nazis and communists. Mass graves, mostly from the first years of the communist era, are still being discovered: the communist take-over was a bloodbath. Old secret police men who had murdered people in cold blood were not only walking around free and unworried; some of them were even decorated. It had also been surprising to discover that the EU supported the building of a memorial to Tito, a cruel dictator, even if he refused to be controlled by Stalin. Zver referred to polls which showed a lack of historical consciousness in young Europeans, especially about the misdeeds of communists.

Arnor Hannibalsson

Illugi Gunnarsson, Minister of Education, chaired the meeting. Speakers in the discussion following Dr. Zver’s paper included Professor Ragnar Arnason and Mr. Jon B. Hannibalsson, former Minister of Foreign Affairs. After the discussion, Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson gave a short speech in memory of Professor Arnor Hannibalsson, a philosopher and one of the most forceful Icelandic opponents of totalitarianism in the 20th Century. According to Gissurarson, Professor Hannibalsson—who passed away in December 2012–distinguished himself by three personal qualities: a sense of justice, courage and learning. Indeed, in an earlier age, he would have been called “Arnor the Learned”. Since Dr. Zver had mentioned Polish philosopher Leszek Kolakowski in her talk, Professor Gissurarson recalled that he had had dinner with Kolakowski and Professor Hannibalsson in April 1979. He had asked Kolakowski whether the modern predicament was not that God was dead in the minds of men. Kolakowski replied that the problem was rather that in the minds of men, the devil was dead. There was little awareness of the possibility of evil; people did not want to believe, or shut their ears to, reports on totalitarian atrocities.

National Librarian Ingibjorg Steinunn Sverrisdottir receives the Comintern files from Hannes H. Gissurarson. Photo: Olafur Engilbertsson.

Professor Gissurarson then handed over to the National Library of Iceland the documents which Professor Hannibalsson—who was educated in Russia and spoke fluent Russian—had found in archives in Moscow after the collapse of the Soviet Union. These documents are mostly from the Comintern archive: the Icelandic Communist Party, founded in 1930, belonged to the Comintern, and later, the leaders of the Left Socialist Party, operating between 1938 and 1968, maintained close ties, if only secretly, with the masters of the Kremlin. Professor Gissurarson said that many interesting things were to be found in these documents, even if they served rather to deepen than to change our views on the relationship between Icelandic communists and the international communist movement. When Professor Hannibalsson’s health failed, he gave the documents to Gissurarson who used them for his book, published in 2011, about Icelandic Communists 1918–1998.

The meeting with Dr. Zver was held in honour of Professor Arnor Hannibalsson, and the occasion was that 16 September marked the final day of the photo exhibition at the National Library on “International Communism and Iceland” which was opened 23 August, on the Remembrance Day for Victims of Totalitarianism in Europe, designated by the European Parliament. The day was chosen because on 23 August 1939, Hitler and Stalin made the non-aggression pact by which they divided up Central and Eastern Europe between them and started the 2nd World War. The meeting was co-sponsored by the Institute of International Affairs at the University of Iceland and by Vardberg, the Icelandic Atlantic Association. The meeting forms a part of the joint RNH-AECR project on “Europe of the Victims”. After the meeting, Professor Gissurarson held a reception for Dr. Zver at his home. The guests included the Minister of Education, Illugi Gunnarsson, the Icelandic National Librarian, Ms. Ingibjorg Steinunn Sverrisdottir, Ms. Sigridur Snaevarr, former Icelandic Ambassador to Slovenia (residing in Paris), and Professor Ragnar Arnason. Dr. Zver’s husband, Milan Zver, was Minister of Education in Slovenia in 2004–8 and is now a member of the European Parliament. Morgunbladid published an interview with Dr. Zver 17 September where she discussed, among other things, history teaching in Europe. Vidskiptabladid reported 19. September on the meeting with Dr. Zver and the Comintern files.

Zver Slides