Thread by @jyzg

Finnish investments thread.

Sonera bought a 3G permit from Germany around 2000. Each Finn paid $1000. They didn't use the permit, it was worthless.

Fortum bought TGC-10 old power station from Russia and participated in Nord Stream 2. Every Finn paid $1000. Last week Russia said these investments belong to Russian state.

Stora Enso bought the Consolidated Paper company at "worst possible moment" 2000, sold it 2007. Made a $2.5B loss. $500 per Finn.

Nokia bought NAVTEQ for $8.1B in 2008. It was possibly worth $250M. They made other mistakes too, like thinking they are too late or proud to use Android and Linux, and USA and South Korea took their business. Loss per Finn about $10k.

Nokian Tires decided to build a new tire factory to Russia around 2010. They were able to exit a month ago, with losses of around $500M. Just $100 per Finn.

Finns had the best phosphate mine in the world because it has less heavy metals than respective mines elsewhere. What to do? Sell it to Norway. After sale farmers have to pay double for the fertilizers. Amortized to now it is about a loss of $500 per Finn.

Espoo used to own their power station. They decided to sell it to a German company with a reduced price so that ownership is not consolidated in Finland. After few years the German company sold it with higher price back to Finns. Espoo reinvested to a museum of religions.

The museum cost only $50M so there was money left. They chose 12 banksters (6 from Finland, 6 abroad) to invest the money with an expectation of future wins. Only three of the banksters were able to produce a positive results -- in a time when markets doubled. Loss per Finn, $200

2013–5 Finns (Fortum) sold the electrical grid in Sweden and Finland to Canada and Australia. They got $6B from it. After sale, inflation-corrected transfer prices rose 7 % annually, doubled by now. Loss per Finn $1000. Fortum reinvested the money in Russia.

1985-1990 National Workers' Savings Bank and the whole 'red money' economy with previous Soviet fantasies decided that they are very capable to take financial risk and started investing very aggressively. When Soviet collapsed 1991, most of them went bankrupt. $500 loss per Finn.

In 1992, SKOP bank had received 16B FIM to cover risks, but wasn't enough to keep it afloat. $$$ wasn't paid back but disappeared when the bank was joined with the national bank (alternative to a bankrupcy). In today's money with inflation correction it is about $2500 per Finn.

Talvivaara mine (now Terraframe). Happy tax payers are now running the company that would have otherwise gone to bankrupcy. The mine created a loss of about $400 per Finn while spoiling the environment, too. Lots of public money was channeled into the effort at all stages.

The single worst mistake was done by president Mauno Koivisto with 'kova markka'. Unpractical principles led to total chaos: ~20 % unemployment, ~3000 suicides, 20 % interest rates, 50'000 business and 9 % of Finns in debt recovery procedure. Total loss per Finn, ~$5k.

After WW2, Finns paid reparations to Soviet for a war that Soviet communists started. Germans were to pay reparations for burning Lapland.

Finns forgave the Germans, they never paid.

Finns paid themselves in full.

Loss: $2000/Finn although difficult to value 1950s money today.

Poor economics, cold and high taxation, no private capital in Finland, no VC money. Left-wing president Koivisto decided to solve this by setting up a government official socialist VC entity -- with 600 bureaucrats.

Perhaps ~$50 per Finn per year, and more opportunity loss.

Many of the 600 bureaucrats working for the 'government VC' are capable people and could actually further the economy by doing real work instead of redistributing tax money in a fancy looking way back to selected taxpayers (sometimes with political/religious connections).

Finns have companies that have had a healthy culture and have consistently made good decisions. Kone, Sampo, UPM, Wartsila are examples of this, although the last two may be focusing on business domains that are growing very slowly. Nokia was quite impressive until lawyer-CEO.

In 2004 Nokia implemented the matrix organization. It might have been the key mistake. Business areas and the product units began to compete with each other. Within a year, three key Nokia executives left the company. Linux strategy with N770 was sabotaged by Symbian teams.

Due to internal political battles between socialists, farmers and green, Finns have themselves demonized their forests, and agreed that these forests create a lot of pollution. Pay fines $500–$1300 per Finn. Countries who burned their forests a long time ago receive the money. 🌲

Finns became one of the fastest countries to get deep into debt. Despite selling tens of billions of government own infra, in last 15 years, one of the 12 salaries that Finns get per year was paid by new government debt. Here, national debt in billions of EUR:

It is becoming increasingly clear that Finns should not take more debt.
Stop taking new debt: loss $2500/Finn/year

This revelation is coming at the same time when interests are going up.
4 % increase in interest: loss $1000/Finn/year

Because Finns don't know the difference between one million and a billion, public information system project tend to cost a billion instead of a million. Finns have a long history of failed public IT projects, some based on esoteric 1960s technology.

A hospital information system in Helsinki area is estimated to cost $800M, about $800 per person in the area. Inflated costs and difficulties in operation are observed in every area of government information systems, with one exception—taxation IT works well!

Identifying a citizen electronically was too difficult for the government -- after burning tens of millions and 15 years on it. Government entities now make ~1500 individual agreements with banks in order to use the identification system that banks have. Banks love this.

No complete list of public IT projects exists. An estimate exists that the cost of these projects is about two billion per year, but could be three billion, too, considering some non-project personnel costs.
Public IT projects cost $400-$600/Finn, annually.