Students for Liberty Europe, Nordic Students for Liberty, RSE, the Icelandic Research Centre for Social and Economic Affairs, and two student associations on entrepreneurship and innovation at Reykjavik University and the University of Iceland, respectively, held a very successful conference at Reykjavik University Saturday 12 October 2024, between 14 and 18. The theme of the conference was ‘Markets and Entrepreneurship’. The former Olympic champion Anton Sveinn McKee, now Chairman of the Youth Organisation of the Centre Party, was Master of Ceremonies. He welcomed Aslaug Arna Sigurbjornsdottir, Member of Parliament for the Independence Party and Minister of Industry, Universities, and Innovation. She delivered some opening remarks about the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship in an ever-changing world where knowledge seemed to double every day.
The first session was about ‘Challenges to Freedom’. It was chaired by Dilja Mist Einarsdottir, Member of Parliament for the Independence Party. Tahmineh Dehbozorgi gave a moving account of the contrast between her life until she was seventeen in Iran under the iron rule of the mullahs, and now in the United States where she studied law, first in Los Angeles and then in Washington DC. She emphasised that freedom could be lost gradually. We should always ask ourselves when confronted with a measure where it would logically lead in the end. Dr. Kristian Nimietz of the IEA, Institute of Economic Affairs in London, cogently presented the evidence that neither colonialism nor slavery could explain the prosperity of the West. Many colonies made a net loss, and the trade in slavery was only a fraction of total trade from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century. Claims made by the proponents of the recent woke movements about the evils of capitalism were therefore not based on facts.
The second session was about the ‘Promises of Freedom’. It was chaired by popular podcaster Frosti Logason. Ragnar Arnason, Professor Emeritus in Resource Economics at the University of Iceland and an internationally acknowledged expert on fisheries economics, clearly and concisely described ‘Free Market Environmentalism’, a school of thought which began with a 1991 book of the same name by Donald Leal and Terry Anderson. The basis premise of this school of thought is that the definition of private property rights was essential to ensure the efficient utilisation of natural resources. Pollution, for example, was usually because nobody owned and guarded that which was being polluted, such as rivers or lakes. Ely Lassman, the Chairman and Founder of Prometheus on Campus, discussed in an illuminating way the concept of capitalism, as found in writings by its supporters on the one hand and its opponents, such as Noam Chomsky, on the other hand. The truth of the matter was that what was often called capitalism was basically the right of individuals to choose for themselves. It was not based on utility, as some of its supporters had argued, but on individual rights, grounded in human rationality. The defence of capitalism had to be moral, Lassman submitted.
The third session was about ‘Young People and Entrepreneurship’. It was chaired by Haukur Ingi S. Jonsson, a second-year student of financial engineering at Reykjavik University and Chairman of Sproti, the student assocation at the University for innovation and entrepreneurship. The 23-year-old Swedish entrepreneur Ida Johansson impressed the audience with her description of how she five years ago prepared and developed a company, Hyred, which assisted companies in recruiting the right kind of employees. Singled out in 2022 by Fortune as one of eight up-and-coming entrepreneurs, she recently sold the company and is devoting her time to research and investments. Lovro and Marin Lesic, 20-year-old twin brothers, investors and entrepreneurs from Croatia, gave a lively account of what they have already learned from failures and successes of their various projects: 1) It’s never too early to start. 2) Success can’t be achieved without continuous learning. 3) Early failues fuel future successes.
Dr. Birgir Thor Runolfsson, Chairman of the Faculty of Economics at the University of Iceland, made some concluding remarks, whereupon Anton Sveinn McKee invited the participants to a reception and dinner in the nearby Ceres Room at Bragginn, with a great view of Reykjavik and Kopavogur, the next town. At the dinner, Hannes H. Gissurarson, Professor Emeritus of Politics at the University of Iceland, proposed a toast to the two sponsors of the dinner, Prometheus Foundation and the Icelandic whaling company Hvalur. The restaurant Thrir Frakkar had prepared delicious whalemeat dishes which the participants enjoyed. Gissurarson pointed out that the two whale stocks harvested in the Icelandic waters, the Minke Whale and the Fin Whale, were both plentiful and far from being in any danger of extinction.
Before the conference, on Friday 11 October, Gissurarson had published an article about the theme of the conference and the contributions of some of the speakers:
On 12 October, the only remaining daily in Iceland, Morgunbladid, published an interview with Tahmineh Dehbozorgi about the Iranian dissident movement and life in the United States:
The conference was jointly organised by Breki Atlason, the Students for Liberty representative in Iceland, and Haukur Ingi S. Jonsson. They were ably assisted by Students for Liberty veterans Halla Margret Hilmarsdottir, Lukas Schweiger and Magnus Orn Gunnarsson, and by Viktor Levi Andrason, Gunnar Snaer Mogensen and others. Professor Gissurarson invited the foreign speakers and the domestic organisers to a barbecue at his home the night before the conference.
