The overarching lesson the Swedes
offer is this: When you have a financial crisis, and Sweden had a nasty one in the early
1990s, learn from it. Don’t simply muddle through and hope that growth will
eventually return. Rather, address the underlying causes of the crisis to
create an economic and financial system that will be more resilient when bad
times return.
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I’ve been singing the praises of the Swedish Economy (and some of our great
benefits) for years although it’s not easy to explain to those who don’t live
here. The quote above begins to clarify why Sweden has risen above the global
financial abyss.
Without waxing poetic, I will let two articles speak for
themselves. They will provide some insight about how socialism benefits those
in Sweden with children
along with some facts about our strong economy.
1) My
article on parental leave. I had 5 months off from work TWICE – once with each
of my children! The link:
http://gswede-sunday.blogspot.com/2009/09/fathers-parental-leave-swedish-syle.html
2) The
Washington Post online article titled “5 economic lessons from Sweden – The Rock Star of the Recovery.”
The lessons are below. To read the full story, click on the link above.
- Keep your fiscal house in order when times are good, so you will have more room to maneuver when things are bad.
- Fiscal stimulus can be more effective when it is automatic.
- Use monetary policy aggressively.
- Keep the value of your currency flexible.
- Bankers will always make blunders; just make sure they don’t doom the economy.
It’s important to remember that despite having a great
economy, not everyone is reaping the benefits, including some immigrants I
know. A quote from one:
36 year old Immigrant
from USA living in Stockholm:
“Amazing how stable
the economy is yet I know so many people who aren't employed or simply
partially employed.. wait they're not Swedes.
Nevermind.”
It’s never paradise for everyone in a country although most
people in this country have a VERY good life – something I hope they are
grateful for.
I’m grateful.
Happy Gswede Sunday!
The Swedish Flag
1 comment:
yep...
Another example of the Swedish paradox. In its bi-annual Migrant Integration Policy Index, where the OECD ranked 31 countries on 144 datapoints late last year in the breadth and depth of their immigration policies, Sweden ranked (again) FIRST!
A few months later OECD released a report showing the gap between employment rates for foreign-born vs nationals. Sweden ranked ... LAST!
But hey, we don't talk about that second report ... there was certainly a flaw in the data collection.
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