President of Iceland advocates economics reform

The president of Iceland mr. Olafur Ragnar Grimsson has spoken out yet once more against modern mainstream economic theory, at a conference dedicated to the honor of an old friend, economist Þráinn Eggertsson. The conference bearing the title Economic Behaviour and Institutions Revisited was held at the University of Iceland, where the president said in his speech that...

"...in Manchester we were presented with competing and complimentary views of human behaviour: No single discipline could master the understanding of why and how; homo economicus was simply an analytical tool, and often a misleading one. It was homo sapiens that would, through conflicts and complexities, provide the key to a more profound understanding.

In Dover Street they offered vigorous courses in economics, but we also had to study political science, sociology and anthropology; the old building vibrated with lively debates and interdisciplinary activities.

If you ask me – and mind you, I am the only one here today who witnessed these early formative years – whether the writings of Adam Smith, Malthus or John Maynard Keynes influenced Thráinn more than the fascinating and entertaining lectures given by Professor Gluckman, an anthropology pioneer, on the Zulu tribe in Southern Africa, I would, if you pressed me, have to cast my vote for the Zulus rather than the founding fathers of modern economics!

It may be an impolite and un-presidential conclusion in this prestigious company of economic scholars, but I firmly believe that when the orthodoxies of recent decades brought economic research and financial policy-making into dire straits, it was the memory of the Zulus that gave Thráinn the strength to advocate an alternative view and to stick to his guns even though fashion called for another course.

Sitting in Gluckman’s classes, we saw a strong resemblance between the Zulus and the Nordic viking culture and listened with fascination when the learned professor brought Shakespeare into his analysis, highlighting the similarities between the royal courts of British history and the tribal dances on the grasslands.

We realised that wherever we come from, however sophisticated the frameworks of our societies and the advances of our institutions, we all –Nordic Vikings, Zulus, English kings and nobles – belong to the same human family. No discipline should cut the study of economic behaviour free of the dimensions provided by culture, old and new, by the vigorous restrictions of political institutions, by the dramatic, vibrant and ever-changing forces in what we call society.

In recent years, our nations have suffered greatly because of the adoption of a narrow perspective claimed to be the one and only guidebook. Governments and businesses alike turned a blind eye to the school of thought in which Thráinn has now for decades been among the pioneering leaders, the school which calls on all of us to acknowledge that this is a journey, imperfect and unstable, in a train with many compartments, filled with human beings of all shapes and sizes, a colourful parade packed with people of different cultures and traditions, like an overcrowded Indian train running from Rajasthan to Goa.

It is therefore not only appropriate that we should here today honour a dear friend and a great and wise scholar, but that this gathering should also be a reminder that at the crossroads where we and many others now find ourselves, there is an urgent need to adjust our thinking, our policies and our actions, to the profound dimensions of the teaching that Thráinn has made his life’s vocation."

Yes, let's adjust our thinking, our policies and our actions to profound dimensions indeed. The president's critique of mainstream economics is far from newfound, in a 1984 televised debate a much younger mr. Grimsson came head to head with one of the prime motivators of modern economic thought, mr. Milton Friedman himself. It seems the presence of such a huge name in his field presented little or no intimidation to the icelandic guest interrogators, so wether you agree with the debate or not then at least it's refreshingly blunt even by today's standards. Ironically, this digitized rebroadcast of the original 1984 show is preceded by an ad from one of the failed banks in Iceland:

Forsetinn: Maðurinn er ekki vél

Athugasemdir

[Jóhanna (IP-tala skráð) 23.4.2012 kl. 18:35]

Kæri herra Guðmundur Ásgeirsson!

Ég sem ekki kann enskt tungumál, viltu vera svo góður og stikla á stóru og segja á íslensku hvað blogg þitt inniheldur.

Það eru til íslendingar sem ekki fengu langskólamenntun og kunna þar af leiðandi ekki erlend tungumál. Við erum enn á lífi.....

[Jóhanna (IP-tala skráð) 23.4.2012 kl. 18:44]

Eitthvað er tölvan að stríða mér. ekki eitt orð að marka frá mínu fyrra kommenti. Verð að koma lagi á skrapatolið sem er komið til ára sinna. Sent með fyrirvara. kveðja.

[Guðmundur Ásgeirsson, 23.4.2012 kl. 21:09]

Jóhanna, þetta er mestmegnis endurbirting á texta af vefsíðu Forsetaembættisins þar sem ræðan í heild sinni er birt á ensku. Í fréttinni sem þetta er bloggað við er hinsvegar einmitt stiklað á stóru um innhald ræðunnar, á hinu ástkæra ylhýra tungumáli voru.

Tilgangur minn með því að birta þetta hér er að geta vísað útlendingum á þetta, útlendingum sem lesa ekki íslenskuna í fréttinni en gætu haft áhuga á því að vita hvaða afstöðu forseti Íslands hefur til umbóta á sviði hagfræðinnar.