Did the Perfect Economy Just Get Better?

The first video we did on this channel was about Norway, a country that has some of the wealthiest citizens in the world, as well as incredible economic management. They avoided the Dutch disease when they discovered offshore oil, but now they have discovered the world's largest reserves of phosphates. Could this strategic resource cause issues, or will it make Norwegians even more wealthy than they already are?

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[theownmages]

As a Norwegian.. i didn't even know we hit the natural resource jackpot again 😅

[dm.lovdahl]

I'm Norwegian and I'm afraid you got the premise of your story completely wrong here. A journalist from The Economist massively exaggerated the find. It's correct that they found 70 billion tons of phosphate-rich rock (in the west of Norway, not the north) but according to Norway Mining, the company that owns the rights to the find, only around ~2 billion tons will be profitable to mine. There's also no knowing exactly how much pure phosphate will come out of it until they start digging. It's still a huge find, and advances in technology could make it profitable to extract more material in the future, but the numbers being thrown around in international media is way, way off. This is not the new oil.

[adriannn]

As a Norwegian, i find it weird that i've never heard about the discovery of "Phosphate". Never seen it in our news, online etc. this is the first time ive heard about it... well that's good and maybe bad who knows

[benjamintomassennordahl]

Small correction, a lot of the hydroelectric power plants was built before the oil, as this was something that drove the early industrialisation of Norway.

[Kameeho]

As a norwegian, i cam attest you did good on the pronunciation of Pensjonsfond. Now the Norwegian Hydro eletric was not developed because of the oil industry, it was developed because of the Nitrate industry, as Norway was the leading producer and inventor of Artifical Fertilizer that is now used everywhere in the world in the early 1900's. But in order to produce this, high amount of energy was in demand and Norway being a natural hotspot for ideal Hydroeletric locations started developing this, which in turn help spreading the industry which also included ship building, which was a major industry for Norway back in the pre-oil days, and its legacy still remains today as Norway is one of the biggest shipping nations in the world and even more influential, most of the Global Shipping insurance companies are owned by Norway. Which gives them a massive influence in world shipping.
And then oil.
And now potentially phosphate in due time.


Another interesting thing with the oil-fund is that Norway is currently experiencing record high inflation rates, however as our currency drops in value, our pension fund reaches record high values due to exhangerate but also due to more income from all its exports.

So while yes, I am partly suffering from constant interest rate increase, at least I know the country won't turn into a 3rd world country within my lifetime at least.

[qine]

I think you already said it, perhaps indirectly: Norwegians can check what eachother’s salary (and tax payments) every year. They log into a website and can literally check any person’s taxable income. In this way, Norwegians have full control over Norways tax income.

[sidineischmidt]

The first Economics explained video I've seen was about Norway. Since then, I've been following this channel and felt happy to see another video on Norway. It's gives always some optimistic vibes on humanity.

[inzyster]

I live there and haven’t heard about this until now, but it makes sense given it happened in July, that’s when all of Norway is on vacation and people are more concerned about whether they remembered to take the hiking boots to their cabin.

[sunnili]

As a norwegian this is very interesting, more people struggle financially here and the prices are rising alottt so i really hope this will help these people

[Strelok]

I'm norwegian, and I haven't even heard of this phosphate discovery.

[PedroPedro-kp]

Morroco's strategic importance just took the biggest hit in history.

[ingvildablua.hommedal]

As a norwegian it was incrediably interesting to learn about our economy! In school, we learn the basics: fishing used to be the biggest income, found oil in the 60s, we have a national bank etc. However, this video is filled with details about the story I was absolutely clueless about. Including the recent discovery of phosphate! The dots have started to connect now.
This was fun, thank you!😄

[RichardsShortHorrorFilms]

I was on vacation in Norway a couple months ago. The most beautiful place I've ever seen. Don't ever change.

[dkkoala]

Do Denmark next! The explosive growth of Novo Nordisk is almost like the discovery of phosphates, and it now has a higher market cap than the GDP of Denmark. However Novo also still pays some of the highest corporate taxes in the world, and refuse to use loopholes to pay less, which seems to counter all economic principles. Could be an interesting topic to explore.

[aheli]

As a Norwegian i can tell you that it's pretty frecking cold here.

[YouChute]

Hi. Australian surgeon working in Norway here. Can attest to the dissatisfaction at the relative flat incomes. That in addition to the extreme work hours is causing a huge shortage of medical professionals. There may be no brain drain, but there is an internal brain redistribution to careers with better work/life balance for the same money.

[MrLense]

One thing is certain is that Norway wouldn't just waste this boon to their economy.

[deformem]

18:05

The Norwegian Industrial Revolution was kickstarted by hydroelectric power in the 1800, because of how cheap the power was. And we used them long before we discovered oil, and we kept the hydro plants because it's cheap and clean.

[guitaroso]

Imagine if Australia took this approach rather than selling of the rights to foreign entities