So, I promised more details on the setting for the beautiful waterfall photo that I posted yesterday. I was in Iceland, giving a talk at Reykjavik University, and some of you recognized the location as Gullfoss. This was my first trip to Iceland and it was spectacular! Icelanders are some of the warmest people you’d ever want to meet (their climate less so – remember, I’m southern) and the country is beautiful.
My incredibly gracious hosts for the trip were Ragnhildur Helgadóttir, Professor of law, and Friðrik Már Baldursson, dean of the school of business. Ragnhildur is a UVA alum, having done both her LLM and SJD there, and is the author of several recent books, including, Almannatryggingar og félagsleg aðstoð [Social Security Law] (with Guðmundur Sigurðsson) and The Influence of American Theories on Judicial Review in Nordic Constitutional Law.
And Friðrik, in addition to being about the nicest, most unassuming person in the world, is also the only business school dean I’ve ever met who is also a statistician and mathematician. Friðrik was formerly a faculty member at Columbia’s statistics department, before making his way to the econ departments and business schools at University of Iceland and then Reykjavik. His research involves energy and environmental issues, among other things.
I was quite excited to present this paper to an Icelandic audience. The topic was public involvement in banking reform issues and, as most Lounge readers already know, Iceland was faced with a banking crisis that garnered international attention – and litigation – a few years ago. For those who don’t remember the crisis, or never followed it, NPR Planet Money had several podcasts that are a great introduction to some of the issues. I would link to them here, had I not given up after 20 minutes of vainly searching for them [Note to NPR: work on that podcast search feature.]
One of the most striking aspects of the dispute, to me, was the use of public referenda (two, I believe) on Icesave. So, I assumed that my Icelandic audience would have quite different views about public involvement in financial issues than a US audience might. But, that turned out not to be the case, I think.
One of the things we discussed (and that I address in the paper) was the tension between the ideal of public involvement as a check on special interest capture of the political process, and the general inability of the public to understand – or even care about – these issues enough to act as an effective check that goes beyond “banks are greedy.”
And a very refreshing aspect of the Reykjavik workshop culture is that the local community is invited to, and attends, faculty workshops. So members of the local business bar (particularly banking specialists), the press, and the local business community were at the workshop and participated in the Q&A. It was especially nice to have this discussion that cut across, not only national boundaries, but professional ones as well.
Like Roger, just a whole bunch of reasons to make Iceland my new favorite place.
Iceland is a great place to visit. We did so with our children in 1986 and have a picture of all five of us on the wall in our living room. We are standing in front of a waterfall. Had I looked at it recently, I might have guessed you location. When we were there we used to have caviar on Ritz crackers for lunch and the Ritz cost more than the caviar. That may have changed as Icelanders gave up fishing for finance. Given recent events, fishing may make a comeback. Congratulations on your trip and presentation,Kim!
Posted by: Bill Turnier | October 14, 2011 at 12:41 PM
Did you try the hotdogs, which are supposed to be "the pride of Iceland"?
http://www.theatlantic.com/life/archive/2010/01/hot-dogs-the-pride-of-iceland/33976/
Posted by: Jack | October 14, 2011 at 04:57 PM
Nice memories, Bill. Now might be a good time to revisit -- the crisis appears to have made Iceland affordable for Americans again.
Jack -- didn't get to try the famous hotdog stand, though I heard repeated stories of Bill Clinton's and Anthony Bourdain's visits (these from Americans, mind you, not Icelanders).
I actually will recommend two local restaurants: Dill, in the Nordic House, http://dillrestaurant.is/EN/index_en.html
and the restaurant at Budir http://www.hotelbudir.is/
The five course dinner (I think they also serve a seven course) at Dill was really exceptional (I had the wine pairing and thus may not remember all the details correctly) and Budir is just an amazing place. The nicest hotel staff I think I've ever encountered -- they even made our stay on a night when the entire hotel (except our room) had been rented out for a field trip for local high school students pleasant.
Posted by: Kim Krawiec | October 14, 2011 at 07:05 PM
Hah, thanks for the shout out! I was amazed enough by Iceland that when I got home I searched to see if it had law schools who might be interested in hiring American lawyers to teach.
I'm not much of an outdoorsy person, but I was amazed by the otherworldlyness of the lands; it really felt like being on another planet. I've posted a bunch of photos here for anyone who's interested.
Posted by: Roger | October 16, 2011 at 05:50 AM
Hmm, looks like my HTML link was stripped out. Try this: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.673644114638.2173229.706676&type=1&l=1ddff25a98
Posted by: Roger | October 16, 2011 at 05:51 AM
Great photos!
Posted by: Kim Krawiec | October 16, 2011 at 09:25 AM