President of Iceland Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson interviewed by P

Paige Parker traveled to over 150 countries with Jim Rogers a bestselling economic expert and author.


Copyright Jim Rogers - provided as a special contribution to The Fenton Report


This interview discusses women, history and taxes in Iceland.

The President of Iceland is Iceland's elected head of state. The president is elected to a four-year term by universal adult suffrage and has limited powers. The president is not the head of government; the Prime Minister of Iceland is the head of government. There have been five presidents since Iceland gained independence from Denmark in 1944. The incumbent is Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, who is now in his fourth term as president, being returned unopposed in 2008, having been first elected in 1996.

The presidential residence is situated in Bessastaðir in Álftanes. The nation's constitution specifies that when the president cannot perform the duties of the office, such as when he or she is abroad or under anesthesia, the prime minister, the president of the Althingi (Parliament), and the president of the Supreme Court take over the power vested in the office. The three vote on any presidential decisions that must be made during that time. The president is also the designated Grand Master of the Order of the Falcon.


Iceland, officially the Republic of Iceland, is an island country located in the North Atlantic Ocean between mainland Europe and Greenland. It has a population of about 320,000 and a total area of 103,000 km². Its capital and largest city is Reykjavík.

Located on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, Iceland is volcanically and geologically active on a large scale; this defines the landscape. The interior mainly consists of a plateau characterized by sand fields, mountains and glaciers, while many big glacial rivers flow to the sea through the lowlands. Warmed by the Gulf Stream, Iceland has a temperate climate relative to its latitude and provides a habitable environment and nature.

The settlement of Iceland began in 874 when, according to Landnámabók, the Norwegian chieftain Ingólfur Arnarson became the first permanent Norwegian settler on the island.[4] Others had visited the island earlier and stayed over winter. Over the next centuries, people of Nordic and Celtic origin settled in Iceland. Until the twentieth century, the Icelandic population relied on fisheries and agriculture, and was from 1262 to 1918 a part of the Norwegian and later the Danish monarchies. In the twentieth century, Iceland's economy and welfare system developed quickly. In recent decades, Iceland has implemented free trade in the European Economic Area and diversified from fishing to new economic fields in services, finance, and various industries.

Today, Iceland has some of the world's highest levels of economic and civil freedoms. In 2007, Iceland was ranked as the most developed country in the world by the United Nations' Human Development Index. It was also the fourth most productive country per capita, and one of the most egalitarian, as rated by the Gini coefficient. Icelanders have a rich culture and heritage, such as cuisine and poetry, and the medieval Icelandic Sagas are internationally renowned. Iceland is a member of the UN, NATO, EFTA, EEA and OECD, but not of the European Union.

Iceland has been hit especially hard by the world financial crisis. The nation's ongoing economic crisis has caused significant unrest in recent months and made Iceland the first western country to borrow from the International Monetary Fund since 1976.

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[hd26R601]

Funny that an American journalist would bring up American values of marriage and family, while having one of the highest rates of unwanted teen pregnancies in the developed world. Don't get that.

[matowgc]

Go for it Olafur! Tell the Americans what they don't like to hear- that despite their wealth their society is more dangerous, less healthy and more polluting than any Western European country! Start learning from us USA.

[MatterEngineer]

These taxes were only so low because Iceland has been collecting a plethora of loans from the rest of the world; now-a-days, however, taxes have risen considerably in a number of fields--following the bank-crash.

Bus fare, thou crippling fares are bleeding me dry!

[capricious71]

They could have sat down.

[kaa3164]

@CodGamerify

Þetta er líka gild afsökun, og augljóslega ert þú undir 15 ára aldri.

[rcdinh91]

omg his accent rocks

[CodGamerify]

@hd26R601 alltaf sama fucking afsökunin fock tregu börn

[321lawc]

@mrpickles478 Because they are communists.

[dan020350]

@hd26R601 :))

[hd26R601]

@dan020350 Hey, we've only recently gone over 300,000 population, with such a tiny, tiny society it naturally takes a higher percentage of the population simply to man all of the infrastructure of a modern country and on top of that, we have a socialistic society in terms of universal healthcare, education to a large degree etc