Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson, member of the RNH Academic Council, gave a talk at a meeting of the Association of Retired University of Iceland Employees 13 February 2013. The title was “Personal Recollections of Four Modern Masters”. There, Professor Gissurarson described his relations with four leading intellectuals of the last century, Friedrich A. von Hayek, Karl Popper, Milton Friedman and James M. Buchanan. As a young University student, Gissurarson organised visits to Iceland by three of them, Nobel Laureates Hayek, Friedman and Buchanan; he also spent a whole day with Popper in his house in Penn, Buckinghamshire, in January 1985, discussing with him ideas and individuals. The influence of these four thinkers can hardly be underestimated. In the 20th century, many politicians, economists and other intellectuals had to make up their mind whether they followed Hayek or John Maynard Keynes in how to conceive of the economic system and to conduct economic policy. Similarly, in modern philosophy Popper and another Austrian philosopher, Ludwig Wittgenstein have often been regarded as the main rivals.

Gissurarson with Hayek at the Ritz in London in 1985.

After Gissurarson and some like-minded young people had founded the Libertarian Association on Hayek’s 80th birthday 8 May 1979, Hayek accepted their invitation to visit Iceland. He gave two papers, one at the University of Iceland on Monetary Order, the other one at a meeting of the Libertarian Association on the “Muddle of the Middle”. During his Iceland visit, Hayek invited Gissurarson to attend the Stanford meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in the autumn of 1980, and in 1984 Gissurarson, then a postgraduate student at the University of Oxford, was elected member of the Society. In the next few years, Gissurarson and Hayek met many times. For example, Gissurarson attended a reception for Hayek, hosted by Richard von Weizsacker, then Mayor of Berlin (and later President of Germany), in the Charlottenburg Palace in 1982, and a reception for Hayek, hosted by Jacques Chirac, then Mayor of Paris (and later President of France), at the Hotel de Ville 1984. Gissurarson showed the audience photographs from those and other occasions. His doctoral thesis at Oxford was on Hayek, and with some friends there he founded the Hayek Society at the University of Oxford. Five Hayek Society members had a memorable dinner with Hayek in London in the spring of 1985. The 86 years old Hayek was in a very good mood, and when musicians approached the table and played the tune to “The City of My Dreams”, Hayek started singing the text in German. He also told his young audience how Mrs. Margaret Thatcher had once disarmed him, what was in his opinion the contrast between liberation and liberty, and why he was critical of the Chicago School methodology; he also compared two U. S. presidents that he had met, John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan.

Milton and Rose Friedman with Hannes Gissurarson in Tokyo in 1988.

Gissurarson first met Milton Friedman at the Stanford meeting of the Mont Pelerin Society in 1980. When he told Friedman that he was busy defending him in Iceland, Friedman said: “You should not be defending me. You should be defending the principles that we share.” Friedman had greatly appreciated it when in early 1984 Gissurarson had, as a postgraduate Oxford student, written to an Oxford professor of statistics who had been widely quoted in British (and Icelandic) newspapers as concluding that Friedman’s statistical methods were fraudulent. The professor replied that nothing that he had said was meant to imply that Friedman had been dishonest; their disagreement was a purely theoretical one. Friedman then visited Iceland in the autumn of 1984 to give a lecture. The night before the lecture he participated in a famous debate on television with left-wing intellectuals Stefan Olafsson and Olafur Ragnar Grimsson, later President of Iceland. When Olafsson had criticized that there was a charge for attending Friedman’s lecture the next day, whereas the tradition at the University of Iceland had been that lectures by visiting scholars were free, Friedman responded that of course those lectures had not been free. The difference was solely that those who did not attend had had to pay for them, and not only those who did attend. Gissurarson also gave an account of a lunch given for Friedman in Iceland by the Minister of Trade, Matthias A. Mathiesen. Gissurarson presented the governor of Iceland’s Central Bank to Friedman with the words: “Here is a man, Professor Friedman, who would become unemployed if your theories were implemented in Iceland!“ Friedman responded with a big smile. “No, he would not become unemployed. He would only have to move to a more useful occupation.“

In his talk, Professor Gissurarson told many more stories of Hayek and Friedman, and also of Popper and Buchanan. He said that Popper and he had discussed extensively whether Popper was too lenient on Marx in his great work, The Open Society and Its Enemies. Popper told him that he had been much influenced by the descriptions of the conditions of the English working class by 19th century novelist Elisabeth Gaskell. Among the many interesting observations that Popper made during the discussion was that Iceland was the only example of a true or pure nation-state that he could think of. Gissurarson’s lecture was a part of the project “Europe, Iceland and the Future of Capitalism”, jointly organised by RNH and AECR, the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists.

Gissurarson Slides 13.2.2013

Nils Karlson. Photo: Haraldur Gudjonsson.

Dr. Nils Karlson, director of Ratio Institute in Stockholm, lectured on the New Swedish Model at a well-attended meeting organised by RNH and the Institute of International Affairs at the University of Iceland, Monday 14 January 2013. Ms. Alyson Bailes, chairman of the board of the Institute of International Affairs, chaired the meeting. In his lecture, Dr. Karlson made a distinction between three Swedish models. The first one was in place in 1870–1970, when the Swedish economy was quite free and the level of taxation was lower than in most other OECD countries. Indeed, until 1960 the general level of taxation was lower in Sweden than in the United States. The second Swedish model was that of 1970–1990 after the Swedish social democrats had taken a sharp turn to the left; taxes were raised and government intervention increased, with a corresponding reduction in economic freedom. Dr. Karlson argued that this second Swedish model ended in total failure in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Slowly, as a result of that crisis, a third Swedish model emerged in the mid-1990s. This was in some ways a return to economic freedom, with tax cuts, deregulation and liberalisation, while welfare benefits for the needy were maintained. From 1990 total tax revenue in Sweden has gone down from more than 52% of GDP (gross domestic product) to about 43%, a drastic change, Karlson pointed out.

Karlson’s lecture was followed by a lively discussion where the speakers included Jon Baldvin Hannibalsson, former leader of the Icelandic Social Democrats, Professor Stefan Olafsson, a vocal opponent of economic liberalism, and Ms. Lilja Mosesdottir, economist and member of parliament (now independent, but formerly for the Left-Green Party). In the audience was Swedish Ambassador Anders Ljunggren, who worked, as the representative of the Centre Party, with the Swedish Social Democrats on some of the financial reforms of 1995–1998. Vidskiptabladid, The Icelandic Journal of Commerce, spoke with Karlson on its Internet television 14 January, and Morgunbladid, Iceland’s leading daily, published an interview with Karlson 15 January. Moreover, Bjorn Bjarnason, former Minister of Justice, and Professor Stefan Olafsson both devoted blogs to Karlson’s message, interpreting it quite differently.

Karlson Slides

Atlas Shrugged or Undirstadan in Icelandic was published in Elin Gudmundsdottir’s translation by Almenna bokafelagid, AB, 26 November 2012. It is the second Rand novel that AB has published. The first one was The Fountainhead or Uppsprettan which Thorsteinn Sigurlaugsson translated and appeared in 2011. We the Living, in Icelandic Kira Argunova, will be published in 2013: It was serialised in Icelandic by an unknown translator in the daily Morgunbladid in 1949.

The American philosophy professor Douglas Rasmussen gave a lecture on Rand’s message on the occasion of the publication of Atlas Shrugged, in the House of National Culture 26 October. The chairman of the Icelandic Ayn Rand Society, Asgeir Johannesson, also gave a short talk. The Society was founded 1 October 2012 in order to promote Rand’s ideas in Iceland. On the board are, with Asgeir, Bjorgvin Gudmundsson, editor of Vidskiptabladid, Internet expert Fridbjorn Orri Ketilsson, radio host Frosti Logason, investor and author Gunnlaugur Jonsson, graduate student and journalist Maria Margret Johannsdottir (who christened her first child Kira, after the main character in We the Living), mathematician Thorarinn Sigurdsson and economic consultant Thorlindur Kjartansson.

This edition of Atlas Shrugged has already generated much media attention in Iceland, not surprisingly, as it is one of the most popular and influential novels of all times. It has sold in about eight million copies worldwide since its original publication in 1957. The Icelandic Ayn Rand Society organised a meeting about Rand’s political ideas 11 November 2012. Speakers included Bjorgvin Gudmundsson, Gisli Hauksson, chairman of the board of RNH, Gunnlaugur Jonsson, Asgeir Johannesson, Thorarinn Sigurdsson and Thorlindur Kjartansson. The meeting was chaired by David Thorlaksson, the chairman of Young Independents.

Frosti Logason

Viðskiptabladid reported the publication of Atlas Shrugged and the lecture by Douglas Rasmussen 3 November. It also published an article on Ayn Rand, her life and her works, 10 November. Frettabladid, on its cultural page, published 30 October an interview about Rand with Frosti Logason. He said that he had, as a University student, become intrigued by the strong emphasis which Rand put on freedom and individual responsibility; the idea that man could not relegate his responsibilities to a higher being or to the authorities, but that he had to choose for himself. Asked whether Rand’s support for capitalism was not less relevant after the financial debacle of 2007–8, Frosti Logason responded: “If there had been liberty in the spirit of Ayn Rand, banks would have been responsible for their own affairs and then they would not have taken the big risks that they took. It is in stark contrast to Rand’s ideas that taxpayers and central banks should pick up the bill for the recklessness of individual banks. She would never have accepted this.”

Helgi Vifill Juliusson

Morgunbladid published 13 November a very favourable review of Atlas Shrugged by journalist Helgi Vifill Juliusson. “One of the most attractive messages of the book is that we have to think independently, for ourselves. Thought is an individual act, even though it is desirable to acquire as much knowledge as possible,” Juliusson wrote. Rand’s novel was discussed extensively 23 January 2013 on the popular weekly television programme about literature, Kiljan, run by the Icelandic Broadcasting Service. Literary critic Frida Bjork Ingvarsdottir said that the novel was interesting and challenging, while she did not agree with the message. Another discussant, Throstur Helgason, described the experience of reading the book as if hit by a steamroller, leaving it open whether this was meant as a complaint or a compliment.

One of the regular columnists at the Landsbankinn Opinion Page on the bank’s website, Californian investor Mark Spitznagel, has written there, 21 March 2012, on the international financial crisis and the relevance of Rand’s ideas. Here is a part of the English original:

So, why is this time different? The answer lies in Ayn Rand’s rhetorical invocation of despair in her 1957 epic Atlas Shrugged: “Who is John Galt?” Simply put, when the state seizes the incentives and drivers of capital investment, owners of capital go on strike. Rand portrays innovative industrialists as akin to Atlas in Greek mythology, carrying on his back a dystopian world of growing and overbearing collectivist government. The hero, John Galt, calls for them all to shrug, to “stop the motor of the world” by withdrawing from their productive pursuits, rather than promoting a world in which, under the guise of egalitarianism, incentives have been usurped in order to protect the politically connected from economic failure. Today, Rand’s fictional world has seemingly become a reality – endless bailouts and economic stimulus for the unproductive at the expense of the most productive, and calls for additional taxation on capital investment. The shrug of Rand’s heroic entrepreneurs is to be found today within the tangled ciphers of corporate and government balance sheets.

The book is on offer directly from the publisher, Almenna bokafelagid, at only 3,824 ISK. The Icelandic edition of The Fountainhead can also be bought there at the same price.

Ms. Kate Hoey, Labour MP for the London district of Vauxhall, gave a talk at a well-attended meeting of Icewise on the “Dangers of Joining the EU” Monday 19 November. She said that the British people were fed-up with EU membership. A small elite in Brussels, out of touch with ordinary Europeans, was steadily increasing its power. It was for her incomprehensible that the Icelanders wanted to join, at the same time as opinion polls showed that almost 65% of the British wanted to leave the union. If the Icelanders joined the EU, they would have to be very concerned about their fisheries. The British felt powerless with their 67 delegates to the European Parliament, and as a member state Iceland could expect to get one delegate. Ms. Hoey also said that in the United Kingdom there was widespread support for a referendum on EU admission. “Let us no longer be Little Europeans. Let us instead be real internationalists,” she added. The leading daily Morgunbladid published 20 November an account of her talk, and published a taped interview with her on its website.

Here, Kate Hoey’s talk can be accessed on Youtube, as well as the introduction (in Icelandic) by Skafti Hardarson and concluding remarks by Hallur Hallsson and Jon Kristinn Snaeholm (also in Icelandic). While RNH did not organise this event, it fully supports it as a part of the joint project with AECR on “Europe, Iceland and the Future of Capitalism”.