Finland blames Apple for its economic troubles

When in doubt, blame someone else. Alexander Stubb, the Finnish prime minister, said today that Apple was responsible for bringing down two of Finland’s biggest economic exports — Nokia and paper. “The iPhone killed Nokia and the iPad killed the paper industry, but we’ll make a comeback,” he said earlier today in an interview with CNBC. It’s not the first time that he’s set up Apple as the shorthand scapegoat for the country’s problems — Stubb made similar, pithy comments back in July when he said that “Steve Jobs took our jobs.” The comments come at a time when Finland has been downgraded by ratings agency S&P. It’s now at AA+ from AAA. The big question now for Stubb and the industries impacted is how to demonstrate to investors and lenders that its businesses are not stagnating. Inaccurate swipes harkening back to past events really screams strong leadership to me.