GlobLog - October 2003
A direct link to each entry is obtained by using the button below the entry.

11:21 - THE DEMOCTORSHIP RUSSIA: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s chief of staff, Alexander Voloshin, is said to have resigned. This is another sign that the so called power clan, “siloviki”, with its base in the FSB (former KGB) is strengthening its grips on power, and that both the liberal economists and the allies with former President Yeltsin are losing out. This is bad news for Russia. It all began with the brutal arrest of the oil magnate Mikhail Khodorkovsky this Saturday. The difference between Khodorkovsky and other oligarchs is not that he is more corrupt or unscrupulous, on the contrary, his oil company Yukos is renowned for being relatively transparent and law-abiding for a Russian company. The difference is that he has challenged Putin by supporting democratic forces, like the parties Yabloko and SPS. Before the arrest FSB also made a raid on Yabloko’s headquarters and stole their servers with their planning for the parliamentary election on December 7th. First the destruction of the free media in Russia and now this. It is no longer possible to call Putin’s Russia a democracy. It is more like a “democtorship” (”demokratur”), as the Swedish novelist Vilhelm Moberg once called a dictatorship with democratic rituals. If you read Swedish, you should look at former Prime Minister Carl Bildt’s analysis here.

11:25 - I´VE GOT THE POWER: The Swedish business magazine Affärsvärlden has published a list on the 100 Swedes younger than 40 with most power, and I am one of them. This mixture of businessmen, politicians and journalists begs the question of the definition of power. To be able to force people to do what you want, for example take people’s money in taxes and tariffs (political power) is actually the opposite of making money by giving people what they want (economic power), and that is also something different from having a platform to try and convince people that this political power should be limited (my power to influence). But nevermind, I happen to like lists...

10:02 - GENEROUS US: Other countries complain about how ungenerous the US is when it comes to foreign aid. But as economist Tyler Cowen points out, this neglects the most efficient form of foreign aid, remittances from immigrants who get a job because of low taxes and a free labour market. If you count the money they send back, the US is the most generous country in the world. The self-righteous Scandinavian nations are less generous than Luxembourg, partly because it’s difficult for immigrants to get jobs here.

09:46 - ANTI-ANTI-SEMITISM: Three days ago, Sweden’s biggest morning paper, Dagens Nyheter, published an article by Jan Samuelsson, who wrote that hatred against jews is "reasonable and justified" because of the actions of Israel. This outrageous collectivism, where every jew is made responsible for the actions of other jews is nothing less than blatant anti-Semitism. To publish that is to step over a line of decency. In the same paper, I sign a protest today together with 42 other Swedish journalists, academics and businessmen, "Jews are not the cause of anti-Semitism" (in Swedish).

20:41 - JUST SAY NO!: Sweden has a bizarre redistribution system between the regions which means that Stockholm’s taxpayers have to send 15 billion SEK to marginally poorer parts of Sweden this year. That is a way of punishing good policies and rewarding bad. Some people in Stockholm have started a brave protest against this. Join them!

20:08 - MADE IN CHINA: When I was in the US recently, a lot of people (including Democratic presidential candidates) complained about cheap goods from China. I have never understood why. I would complain if the prices were high. And the imports won’t cause unemployment. When Western consumers save money, we use them to buy goods and services in other sectors, and people will be employed there. Furthermore, when the Chinese get richer they will be interested in doing something with their money: This week The Economist observes that China’s imports in the last year grew by 41 per cent whereas exports only grew by only 32 per cent. US exports to China rose by 21 per cent. Can people please get a sense of proportions? That China gets rich by cheap exports is the good thing. The bad thing is that it is still an oppressive dictatorship.

23:49 - POVERTY RESEARCH: And in Sweden’s second biggest national morning paper, Svenska Dagbladet, I write an essay today about the very interesting current debate on poverty calculations. There I introduce former World Bank economist Surjit Bhalla’s research, which suggests that the WB is seriously overestimating the number of poor in the world.

10:56 - INTERVIEW IN DAGENS NYHETER: Today there is a long interview with me in the biggest Swedish morning paper, Dagens Nyheter. It is a very benevolent interview, made by Peter Wolodarski, who writes this about my book In Defence of Global Capitalism:

15:56 - DUTCH DOCUMENTARY: Earlier this year Dutch television made a documentary which contrasted my views on globalisation with British anti-capitalist Noreena Hertz. Now you can see me in this show, doing some shopping, visiting my old school and explaining the correlation between freedom and Coca-Cola consumption in RealVideo.

11:16 - BOLIVIA NEEDS REFORM: Some blame Bolivia’s market reforms for the unrest and protests in that country. But the macroeconomic stabilisation in the 80’s actually saved the country from collapse. 1985, GDP per capita had been reduced by a fifth in five years, and inflation was 23,500 per cent. Free market reforms and the reduction of tariffs stopped this destruction, and growth returned to the country. But Bolivia is still desperately poor, and suffers from the normal South American problems: corruption, heavy regulation of business and lack of property rights, especially to land. Bolivia is still less economically free than for example Kenya and Uruguay. Furthermore, the US-led eradication of traditional coca cultivation (and civil rights in the process) in the last years has destroyed the livelihood of thousands of poor farmers. Not very free market. The unemployed took to the streets. Read Jesse Walker on the subject.

10:43 - ON ANTI-GLOBALISTS: Today you can read me in Wall Street Journal Europe, or here.

09:26 - NO GREENHOUSE EFFECT JUST YET: The first snow fell last night, and it’s a beautiful experience to take an early morning walk through a cold Stockholm lit and muffled by snow on all the trees and rooftops. No I’m not being ironic. I am one of few Swedes who actually like the particular weather here.

14:45 - STILL A MESS: In my film Globalisation is good I pointed out that it takes a Kenyan 11 bureaucratic procedures, 68 days and half a year’s income to start a business legally. That’s one of the reasons why Kenya stay poor. The World Bank’s updated Doing Business report shows that some liberalisation has taken place since. Now it only takes 11 bureaucratic procedures, 61 days and half a year’s income! Now I am only waiting for some anti-capitalists to say that Kenya has been ravaged by neoliberalism and ruthless deregulation.

14:00 - PIONEER: 200 years ago the Swedish liberal pioneer Anders Chydenius (1729-1803) died. In Svenska Dagbladet today Henrik Bergquist writes a good article on Chydenius (req subscription), and here I write on this fighter for free trade and free press. Both are in Swedish, but you can read this in English.

09:13 - IN ESTONIAN: Now an Estonian translation of In Defence of Global Capitalism is available. Former Prime Minister Siim Kallas has honoured me by writing the preface. I am especially glad since Estonia is the only country that really practices what I preach. Since independence in 1991 Estonia has unilaterally abolished all tariffs and quotas, and experienced outstanding growth. I just got back from a book tour there and since I was there ten years ago as well, I am an eyewitness to dramatic change – for the better.

14:10 - HAYEK PRIZE: 

Yesterday I received the Publishing Prize of the Friedrich-August-von-Hayek-Stiftung in Berlin. The event was very ceremonial with about 300 guests and tons of media in Berlin’s old concert hall. A quartet from Berliner Symphonieorchester played Schumann, Brahms, Beethoven and Mozart between the speeches. The prize is a specially designed medal of solid gold weighing 250 grams (50 grams more than the Nobel Prize). Germany’s former president, Roman Herzog, presented me with the medal, and the man behind Poland’s transition from communism, Leszek Balcerowicz (now president of the Polish central bank), read a personal motivation for the prize.

The whole situation was overwhelming: The place and the music; to get a prize in the name of Hayek; to share the honour with Margaret Thatcher (though her health prevented her from participating); to hear flattering remarks from a hero like Balcerowicz, etc. I can’t think of a better encouragement and inspiration in my continued fight for Hayek’s ideas. (Those of you who have read Rand’s Atlas Shrugged also know the special meaning of receiving gold from a liberal network, in a high-taxed society.) Here you can read about it in English (pdf), and in Swedish, and here is my acceptance speech. (Yes, the pictures tell the truth, I got a hair cut last week.)                 

09:21 - ON THE RADIO: Today I am commenting how globalisation undermines Sweden’s paternalist alcohol policies, in P1 radio show Godmorgon, Världen! hour 2 (in Swedish).

11:33 - GOING FOR GOLD: Now I am going to Berlin, where I will receive the Publishing prize on Sunday - a gold medal from the Friedrich-August-von-Hayek-Stiftung. Their motivation reads: "In his book ’In Defence of Global Capitalism’ Norberg has promoted in an outstanding manner the general understanding of global economic processes and refuted convincingly popular prejudice about the supposedly unjust effects of globalisation." It’s of course a fantastic honour, and it’s even more flattering that I share it with Lady Margaret Thatcher and ECB chief economist, Otmar Issing. Hayek only got the Nobel prize, I get the Hayek prize!

16:10 - IN SPANISH : Protección mortal, a Spanish translation of my criticism against Western protectionism, has been published in six different Latin American news papers. And the suitable illustration below accompanied it in El Observador, Uruguay. If you read Spanish, you can also look at this speech.

10:20 - IMF BOOK FORUM: When I was in Washington DC a month ago I participated in the inaugural IMF Book Forum with Jerry Muller and Ann Florini. Now a transcript is available.

07:55 - TOTAL RECALL: The next governor of California is Arnold Schwarzenengger. Yes! It’s wonderful that individuals can enter politics after another career, as opposed to the political broilers who have been in politics since they learned to walk, and never understand what the world outside looks like. That voters revolt against that political upper class is a great thing. Furthermore, Schwarzenegger’s views seem sound. He combines a belief in economic freedom with a belief in individual freedom, with liberal views on homosexuality and abortion for example. (Read his praise for Adam Smith and Milton Friedman.) That’s exactly the kind of mix republicans would need to be electable and less medieval. The one reservation is about his character, his record of sexual harassment conveys a lack of respect for other individuals. If Schwarzenegger can’t keep his hands off fellow actors, will he be able to keep them off the lives and incomes of fellow Californians when he has to deal with the state’s mess?

11:52 - FAKE RESEARCH ON SOCIAL PROGRESS: "Sweden lead the world in social progress" an article in the biggest Swedish morning paper, Dagens Nyheter claims today. And the US ranks only 27th. This is good news for all anti-Americans out there. The bad news for them is that this is just politicised fake research. The article is written by Richard Estes (with Joachim Vogel), based on his latest Index of Social Progress of 163 nations. The problem with the index is that it does not only capture the living standards of individuals, but also the policies in the country. Welfare legislation and political controls get points just by being in place, not because of any positive results. A country also gets extra points if the population is homogenous, and do not have mixed religions and ethnicities. You also get minus points because of carbon dioxide emissions (one consequence of wealth) and if the military spending is high. You would think that the US gets extra points for protecting its citizens and saving Europe from war and totalitarianism again and again, but no, that’s a minus!

As if this was not enough to get a strong anti-American slant, the index also subtract social progress points from a country because of unequal distribution. In other words, poor Americans might be much better off than in other countries, but the rest of the population is proportionally wealthier, so the US is more unequal and gets minus points. That’s what you get from a researcher who thinks that the real problem in the world is wealth and not poverty. And that’s how you give people the impression that the US is less socially developed than Bulgaria. Estes should ask a Bulgarian with a chance to get a green card to the US if he prefers the great living standards in Bulgaria.

The big mystery is why Swedish taxpayers are forced to fund Estes’ politicised research. It is now part of a recent study on social progress in the 90s from the SCB, Statistics Sweden. It wouldn’t surprise me if Estes gives Sweden extra social progress points because of that…

16:36 - LESS DYNAMIC POSTREL: In an old blog entry, my favourite Virginia Postrel (see last posting) quotes approvingly from a nice Washington Post column about me, and then writes: “I wouldn’t, however, call Johan Norberg’s hair ‘long’--except, of course, in ever-so-conservative DC.” And then she backs up her argument with a link to an old picture of me. That’s a surprisingly static perspective coming from a dynamist like Postrel. Hairstyles should and do change. Here are some examples of my old hair cuts:

10:14 - DYNAMIC POSTREL: One of the most interesting thinkers today is Virginia Postrel. A couple of years ago she wrote The Future and its Enemies, a manifesto for a creative, dynamic society, and still the best guide to the new conflicts and battle lines in politics, economics and science (have a look at the Swedish translation). Now Postrel has written The Substance of Style, a great book that explains and applauds the rise of aesthetics and design in real estate, coffee bars, washing machines and even toilet brushes. This is a wonderful defence of design and fashion against both the cultural conservatives and the anti-logo leftists. It helped me better understand our aesthetic age, and more important, makes me feel good about my own fascination for superficial things, like well designed labels on South African wine bottles. Read the book. It looks good too.

12:48 - ANTI-CSR: My keynote address against Corporate Social Responsibility that upset the CSR establishment gathered in the Netherlands two weeks ago is now online. The organiser recently sent me a friendly mail, saying "Without you it would not have been the same". I am not sure it’s meant as praise, but I think he’s right.

14:00 - INDIA FROM RAGS TO RICHES:  After independence, India chose protectionism and economic planning, and set a world record in poverty. But after the reforms in the early 1990s, things look brighter. Since 1990, the number of Indians belonging to the middle class has grown from 310 to 550 million, and the number of poor has declined from 180 to 85 million. This article in the Washington Post, illustrates the transition. As one Indian puts it: "People are becoming much more globalized."

09:28 - TROUBLE-SHOOTING IN BRUSSELS: I have just been to Brussels, and at last I understand what is the problem with the EU. Among other things I participated in a good globalisation seminar arranged by the Confederation of Swedish Enterprise. In my introduction I blamed the EU for the failure of the WTO-negotiations, and I said that the Common Agricultural Policy must be scrapped completely. I thought I should use the opportunity since Mauro Petriccione, head of the unit in DG Trade, the European Commission, was one of the panelists. I also got great support from Patrick Messerlin, who is an eloquent French free trade economist. Afterwards, two persons from the audience approached me independently of each other and told me that it was a bit brave and/or shameless of me to criticise the EU so openly, especially in the presence of an official from the commission. That was a bit controversial in Brussels, they told me.

17:59 - BERGLINS: I feel sorry for all non-Swedes who do not get the chance to read Berglins, the cartoonist couple (formerly known as Jan Berglin) who are the funniest and most insightful social critics in Sweden today. But all Swedes should read them in for example Svenska Dagbladet every Wednesday. Why not the strip of today, an accurate and amusing description of local politics.