Plugging Into Finland? Kjell Nordström and the Reinterpretation of the United States as Idea

One of our favourite writers – particularly in combination with his former colleague at the Stockholm School of Economics (‘SSE’), Jonas Ridderstråle, with whom he co-authored the divine 1999 tome Funky Business: Talent Makes Capital Dance  – Kjell Nordström is also an inspiring speaker, and we at Mediolana periodically check the Internet for new content from this marvellously distinctive and original commentator.

Recently however, our CSO did find himself wondering whether one of Dr. Nordström’s most brilliant notions – that of the United States of America not as a country, but as an idea – still has as much validity as it once did. In the excellent compilation Kjell in Concert, the Associate Professor at SSE’s Institute of International Business posits the idea (also featured in his work with Dr. Ridderstråle) that the USA is a virtually uniquely straightforward country into which to assimilate: within 3-5 years of ‘plugging in’, anyone can ‘become American’, with the Austria-born former Governor of California Arnold Schwarzenegger cited as an paradigm of this phenomenon. Nordström contrasts the United States with the ‘impossibility’ of ‘plugging in’ to European countries such as Finland, Poland and France, which are presumably (and perhaps correctly) perceived as less open and receptive to immigrants.

But while for much of modern history this dichotomy may have been essentially true, we at Mediolana have some qualifications of our own to the proposition that the United States is that much easier to ‘plug into’:

1. A Diverser Europe? In the past couple of decades, a European generation has grown up that is entirely used to the presence of people of foreign or even non-European origin, particularly those raised in large urban areas. For these people, multiculturalism is not so much good or bad; it just is, and monoculturalism, whether in cuisine, dress or language is simply unthinkable. This is not merely the case on the streets of London or Berlin, but even remote countries such as Finland: as of 2009, c.10% of Helsinki’s population has a mother tongue other than Finnish. When it is entirely normal for football players of African origin to represent non-colonial countries such as Switzerland and Norway, we can in at least some senses speak of a Europe in which diversity is intensifying.

2. A More Insular America? As Dr. Nordström has acknowledged elsewhere, the United States is not nearly as welcoming to at least some outsiders as it once might have been. 2000s creations such as the Department of Homeland Security and the Mexico – United States barrier evince a country which is actively seeking to become less diverse and which is no longer confident about the presence of people with certain (perhaps ill-defined) characteristics, despite the huge economic and cultural costs of such a disposition. In any country, when the political climate is pervaded by fear, militarism and uncertainty, those who are visibly and/or linguistically different from the perceived average are unlikely to feel at home, regardless of how well they have integrated into the mainstream.

Alessio Rastani: Rogue Trader or Prophet of Doom?

Squeezed between the established CNN and the dynamic Al Jazeera, BBC News – all too often characterised by tired sets, characterless hosts and unchallenging programming – is rarely the choice of the global viewer seeking quality current affairs output. Yet in the last 48 hours or so, the channel has delivered a genuine ‘scoop’ of sorts: the definitive arrival into the pantheon of economic punditry of none other than Alessio Rastani.

Resplendent in a Bishopsgate suit and coral pink tie, Rastani stunned the watching lunchtime audience with his take on the latest proposed eurozone rescue plan. His comments can be summarised thus:

1. Markets are ruled by fear;

2. The euro is going to crash spectacularly;

3. There will be an investors’ rush towards the ‘safer’ assets of the US dollar and Treasury bonds;

4. The market is ‘toast’, with the stockmarket in particular being ‘finished’;

5. The savings of millions are in jeopardy;

6. The recession is a huge money-making opportunity for those that are prepared for it; and 

7. Goldman Sachs – as opposed to national, purportedly sovereign governments – rules the world.

Perhaps predictably, acres of coverage have ensued. Much of it has concentrated on the issue of whether Rastani is in fact a ‘prank’ or ‘hoax’ analyst; some of it has dwelled on how Rastani’s prosaic reality – accommodation in a semi-detached house in Bexleyheath, one of south-east London’s most remote and anonymous suburbs, and directorship of the presently indebted Santoro Projects company – contrasts with his Midlantic drawl, impeccable grooming and newly-acquired status as a fiscal savant.

Yet few if any in the media appear to be asking the following question: to paraphrase the legendary former tutors on the Advanced MBA programme at the Stockholm School of Economics, Jonas Ridderstråle and Kjell Nordström, what if Rastani is even 10% right?

While Mediolana would question Rastani’s contention that – at least in the medium-term – United States Treasury securities and the American dollar will be viewed as ‘safe havens’ for international capital, many of his other assertions raise vital questions about the structure of much of the present historical phase of Western (particularly Anglo-American) capitalism that do not have any easy – or certainly palatable – answers. Those commentators and journalists who are quick to deploy crude snobbery over someone’s residential address or supposed City of London credentials (whatever that means in the current context) would do well to turn their pens to some of the most profound economic questions of our time and answer Rastani’s primal scream with a measure of cogency. Until they do so, the independent trader with a first name straight out of Shakespeare could yet return to haunt them.