Dr. Michael Walker, the retired director of the Fraser Institute in Canada, gave a talk at a breakfast meeting sponsored by an RNH partner, the institute RSE, Monday 17 September 2012 on “The Index of Economic Freedom and Iceland”. Walker described the evolution and composition of the Index of Economic Freedom, and pointed out that Iceland which had one of the freest economies in the world at the beginning of the 21st Century, is in the group where economic freedom has decreased the most in the last few years, with Venezuela and Argentina. In 2004, Iceland had the 13th freest economy in the world of the 130 countries analysed. In 2010, however, Iceland is in the 65th place, of 144 countries, far behind all the other Nordic countries. Sweden which used to be the Nordic country with the least economic freedom, has for example moved from the 39th to the 30th place from 2009 to 2010. Iceland shares the 65th place with Saudi-Arabia.

Gisli Hauksson, chairman of the RNH board, was the commentator on Walker’ talk (which was broadcast via satellite from Canada).  Morgunbladid carried the news about Iceland’s decreasing economic freedom 18 September, the website journal Andriki immediately commenting on it. However, some vocal critics of capitalism were not worried about this trend, including Professor Stefan Snaevarr and Professor Stefan Olafsson. Vidskiptabladid put interviews with Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson and lawyer Birgir Tjorvi Petursson about the results for Iceland on its website 18 September. Professor Birgir Thor Runolfsson has used the index of economic freedom as the substance of several blogs, with graphs.

Rosenfeldt Interview: “Cruel World of Conspiracies.”

Professor Niels Erik Rosenfeldt, of the University of Copenhagen, gave a well-attended lecture at the University of Iceland 10 September 2012 on the Secret Apparatus of Comintern, on which he has published books in Danish and English. This event formed a part of a series of lectures organised jointly by RNH and AECR, the Allicance of European Conservatives and Reformists. The topic has been much-discussed in Iceland after the publication of books by Professor Hannes H. Gissurarson and Professor Thor Whitehead on the Icelandic communist movement where they stress its nature as a revolutionary movement, closely connected with Moscow. Several Comintern agents visited Iceland in the 1920s and 1930, and more than twenty Icelanders were trained at the Comintern secret schools in Moscow. In his lecture, Rosenfeldt said that in British files he had discovered some secret messages with instructions to the Icelandic communists, sent from Moscow via Copenhagen. The British Secret Service had succeeded in intercepting and decoding those messages.

In the question time after the lecture, Thor Whitehead briefly discussed the significance of those messages that he had also found. Rosenfeldt said that there was no evidence suggesting that the Icelandic students at the secret Moscow schools were exempt from the obligatory military training given in these schools. An interview with Professor Rosenfeldt was published in Morgunbladid 13 September. Rosenfeldt’s lecture is available here on Youtube.

Ridley giving his lecture. Professor Arnason chairing.

Dr. Matthew Ridley, former science editor of The Economist, and the author of many best-selling books on science, especially genetics, gave a lecture at The University of Iceland 27 July 2012 on Rational Optimism. The meeting was jointly held by RNH and the Institute of Public Administration and Politics at the University of Iceland, and is a part of a series of lectures on “Europe, Iceland and the Future of Capitalism”, organised in cooperation with AECR, the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists. Ridley emphasised how much progress had been made in the last few hundred years, and traced it back to man’s capacity to exchange goods and services and thus to avail himself of more knowledge than he possessed himself. A system of free exchange, catallaxy, as F. A. Hayek calls it, has developed to the benefit of all.

Morgunbladid editorial on Ridley.

Ridley’s lecture was well attended and generated much publicity. Vidskiptabladid gave an account of Ridley’s debate with Bill Gates on global warming and African development 26 July, and Morgunbladid published an interview with Ridley 27 July, an account of the lecture 30 July, and an editorial on Ridley’s message the same day. The website visir.is published an article about Ridley 29 July, based on an interview by the television station Stod tvo, for its Sunday Show 29 July. Almenna bokafelagid decided to have Ridley’s book, The Rational Optimist, translated into Icelandic, to be published in the spring of 2014. Ridley’s lecture is available here on Youtube.