Matt Yglesias

The Bjork Fund

Björk, by far the world’s most famous Icelander, is launching a new venture capital fund hoping to save her economically distressed island home: “Audur Capital will oversee the fund’s day-to-day dealings, directing an initial investment of 100m Icelandic krona (£575,000) toward sustainable, environmentally-friendly businesses.” Given Iceland’s very high level of human capital and the currently near-worthless state of its currency, I think investing in new Icelandic business seems like a decent bet. The trouble, however, is the same as the trouble with everything these days — if everyone around the world is reducing their expenditures, then it’s just extremely difficult for any new business to succeed whether or not it has an underlying idea that’s sound.

At any rate, I like Björk’s pre-solo work with the Sugarcubes best, and the “Motorcrash” video gives you a taste of Iceland’s odd, tree-free landscape:

Also note that unlike some musicians, Björk isn’t just being pretentious in not having a last time — Icelandic people don’t have last names. Instead they operate with a first name and a patronymic based on their dad’s first name.