Supercell, Cfengine, Meltwater, SnapTV, ... Even Opera and Nokia are/were based out there. There's actually a lot from there.

Finland: http://startup100.net/ Norway: http://torgronsund.com/norwegianstartups/

Finland has actually done OK when it comes to startups (Supercell, Rovio, Nokia and now offshoots, etc...). Norway, not sure, but they're a petro state with a tiny population.

Plus, even if there were hundreds of hot Finnish startups (there is a site that measures them actually, but I'm not Finnish so I know little about their scene) they wouldn't have exposure in the US since the US is so US-centric. Hell I'm not American so all I know of startups in the US is what I see here.

Startups aren't the only measure of economic performance. Those are two of the wealthiest nations in the world and the welfare of citizens of Nordic countries is generally at the very top.

Also, I do recall that Linux comes from Finland.

They actually have decent amounts of entrepreneurship relative to their populations, a higher average living standard than the US, longer life expectancy, far less crime, all despite having nearly no resources. Oh, and more equality. But GDP/total wealth is all that matters, right?

And a little note on HDI (used to measure quality of life/human development) - its skewed in favour of the US because it measures average income, not taking into account the fact Americans pay extra for health care while Europeans include it in taxes/exclude it from income calculations. Even then several Euro states beat the US.