Hannes H. Gissurarson gives his talk on Churchill. Photo: Arni Sigurdsson.

Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson gave a talk about “Winston Churchill the Statesman” at a luncheon meeting of the Icelandic Churchill Club Saturday 17 November. He pointed out that Churchill was firmly planted in the Anglo-Saxon tradition of liberty under the law, whose noblest achievements were the 1688 Bloodless Revolution in England and the 1776 American Revolution: their aim had been to circumscribe power and to ensure individual rights. Professor Gissurarson discussed some of the most famous quotations attributed to Churchill and traced them to other sources. A legend in his own lifetime, Churchill was often misquoted.

According to Professor Gissurarson, the rise of Hitler, opposed by Churchill, was certainly resistible. Machiavelli had said that in the fight against the wolves, the statesman had to possess the strength of the lion and the cunning of the fox, and these two qualities Churchill had combined: he had also recognised the wolves, Hitler and Stalin, for what they were. Another topic discussed by Professor Gissurarson was the British Empire. While it could be criticized for much, it should not be forgotten that it brought the rule of law to many countries. Often it was vastly better than the alternatives, either cruel domestic despots, or the Japanese and German Empires which competed with it in the 20th Century. When the British left India, it was partitioned in a bloody way, with tens of millions of people losing their homes. Did the Indian elite then rule the country better than the Raj? It was interesting that the inhabitants of Hong Kong did not want to part with British rule in 1997. Finally, Professor Gissurarson discussed the episode in the election campaign of 1945 when Churchill, under the influence of F. A. von Hayek, warned against central planning: But the British electorate was not ready for that message.

Churchill: Slides

Dr. Daniel Mitchell, senior tax policy analyst at Cato Institute in Washington DC, gave a talk about progressive taxes at the University of Iceland 16 November 2012, invited by RNH and the newly-f0unded Icelandic Union of Taxpayers. Mitchell pointed out that the main role of taxes is to obtain the revenue necessary to pay for government services. By double taxation, such as taxes on dividends and capital gains, the accumulation of capital, necessary in a growing economy, is made more difficult. Tax authorities should not discriminate between future consumption (or investment) and present consumption. Mitchell argued that a high progressive incomes tax as has recently been imposed in Iceland, and a special wealth tax were both very inefficient kinds of taxes.

Mitchell’s visit to Iceland provoked much discussion. The daily Morgunbladid published an interview with Mitchell 20 November 2012. Vidskiptabladid, a weekly business magazine, gave an account of his lecture 1 December. Oli Bjorn Karason, economist and alternate Member of Parliament for the Independence Party, published an article about Mitchell’s message in Morgunbladid 21 November. Lawyer Finnur Thor Vilhjalmsson criticized Mitchell in an article in left-wing newspaper DV 8 December 2012.

Mitchell Slides 2012

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