Posted on 03/02/2007 3:57:39 PM PST by WesternCulture
"Creative class flies to Sweden
Sweden is second to none when it comes to creativity in business and is "a talent magnet for the world’s most educated workers", according to business magazine Forbes.
These claims are backed up with statistics culled from the book The Flight of the Creative Class by Richard Florida, which measures creativity in terms of talent, technology and flexibility.
When these qualities were compiled in a global creativity index, Sweden came out on top of the pile, just ahead of Japan, Finland and the United States.
In an article singing the praises of Sweden's "well-educated citizenry", Forbes notes that the country's healthy economy contains much to admire for investors.
With the government set to sell off a number of state-run companies, the magazine estimates that the state coffers will soon swell by a further $100 billion.
"This, in addition to Sweden’s fiscal discipline, tradition of craftsmanship and ample natural resources, adds to the allure of this market," wrote Forbes.
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"Sweden's GDP: +4.7 percent in fourth quarter 2006
Sweden's GDP rose by 4.7 percent during the fourth quarter, calendar-adjusted and compared to the fourth quarter of 2005.
Seasonally adjusted the economy rose by 1.2 percent compared with the third quarter of 2006. Household consumption and gross fixed capital formation gave the highest contributions to the growth in GDP. Exports increased by 9.3 percent and imports by 8.2 percent. Gross fixed capital formation was up 8.6 percent. The change in inventories amounted to a negative GDP change of 0.3 percentage points. Household consumption expenditures increased by 2.7 percent, while General government consumption expenditures increased by 2.5 percent. Industrial production was up 5.5 percent and total producers of goods rose by 5.7 percent. Service sector industries rose by 6.7 percent. Total employment, measured as the number of hours worked, increased by 2.5 percent.
Compared to the publication in December 2006, the growth in GDP, calendar-adjusted, has been revised upwards by 0.1 percentage point for the second quarter and revised downwards by 0.3 percentage point the third quarter of 2006. In the figures now published the GDP growth, calendar-adjusted, is 4.5 percent the first quarter, 5.4 percent the second quarter and 4.1 percent the third quarter of 2006.
In connection to this release the Premium pension scheme, that is managed by the Premium Pension Authority (PPM), has been reclassified. It belonged earlier to the social security sector but after a decision by Eurostat it has been reclassified as part of the financial corporations sector. The accounts for the total Swedish economy have not been changed which means that GDP, GNI and total savings of the sectors are unchanged. Whereas, as a consequence, changes between sectors in production, employment, consumption, income, savings etc. has occurred. The new treatment implies that what earlier was government production and employment now corresponds to production and employment in the financial corporations sector. Government consumption is after the reclassification accounted as household consumption expenditure. In 2005 the government consumption of PPM was 247 million SEK in current prices. The largest impact of the new accounting treatment is noted for savings. The household savings is larger and the consolidated government sector has correspondingly lower savings. The reduction in financial savings of the consolidated government sector in 2005 amounts to 26 billon SEK. This equals 1.0 percent of GDP. After the reclassification the household savings ratio in 2005 is 1.7 percent higher than before."
Well that's good news for Sweden considering its poor past performance.
Yes, Sweden performed poorly in the period of 1973-1994 by general OECD standards.
However, I don't think any of the 10 richest economies on earth as measured by nominal GDP/capita presently is growing faster than Sweden.
Sweden made some improvements..no?
They elected a conservative leader last fall -- their stock market has been on a tear ever since (actually, it started anticipating the election results and started a steady climb last summer). Click this "link" to check out the Sweden country fund ETF (EWD) 1 year chart:
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=EWD&t=1y
"Sweden made some improvements..no?"
In what areas do you suggest we make improvements?
(Not saying I think nothing ought to be done myself)
I said you have made them.
I wasn't clear enough, I was refering to this post:
"Well that's good news for Sweden considering its poor past performance"
When and in what areas has Sweden been performing in a poor manner?
I'm not offended or anything, I'm just wondering what you're aiming at.
Or, sooner, I confused your two posts.
The poor performance was in the years 1975-2000. You can look that up yourself quite easily. But I'm not "aiming at" anything. What are you aiming at? US economic performance has also been quite impressive.
"Sweden's GDP: +4.7 percent in fourth quarter 2006 "
Azerbaijan's growth rate was 32.5%. All I'm saying is that GDP growth in 4th quarter 2006 doesn't necessarily tell the whol story. Wiki lists GDP per capita for 2005 US at #3 at $41,399 and Sweden at $29,926..i.e. plenty of room to grow. Also one quarter is one quarter. Sweden has poor years 1975-2000 I thought maybe they had made changes...you tell me.
I'm aiming at truth - and I'm not saying you are not.
If I sounded impolite above, I apologize.
GDP by PURCHASING POWER PARITY isn't a suitable measurement if one wishes to compare the prosperity of Swedes visavi US Americans. The simple reason to this is the fact that GDP/capita by PPP doesn't acknowledge the fact that Swedes pay more for consumed goods and services BECAUSE OF A 25% SALES TAX which also (together with other taxes) finances their consumption of education, child care and health care. When US Americans buy a SUV they don't get a lot of government goodies into the bargain, Swedes do.
I'm not saying the Swedish model is better, but it's foolish to say it doesn't work.
Let's have a look at what Wiki has to say about NOMINAL GDP/capita:
8 United States 42,000
9 Sweden 39,694
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29_per_capita
That was 2005, by now we might have surpassed the US.
Anyone that has visited both the US and Sweden (like I have) would say the latter measurement is a more accurate instrument for comparision.
That was in 2005.
Considering
(Never mind the last two lines, obviously I was in somewhat of a hurry posting my reply :-) )
If you're happy with it..I'm happy for you. Doesn't mean I want to use it here.
"If you're happy with it..I'm happy for you. Doesn't mean I want to use it here."
- No, why should you?
Always trust your own culture.
I have been fortunate to travel the world to some extent and I have learned a lot from it.
The Swedish Model is a great thing provided you have a nation of hard working Scandinavians who want to produce children. Given Swedish circumstances of today, such an average family will be able to own a nice house, a Volvo SUV and spend their 5 week, all paid for holiday period in their summer residence.
However, there is a problem.
Swedes don't produce children enough for this idyllic viking saga to continue.
The economy is not a problem.
We've got the skills to pay the bills.
But propagation is.
OK does your model in any way contribute to the propagation problem? Seems to me that it's a big problem for many countries, not so much the US at this time. Why not do something to increase your birthrate?
"OK does your model in any way contribute to the propagation problem?"
I'd say we'd be in more or less the the same problematic situation with an American model of taxation.
Taxation isn't the root to evil.
What is the main factor behind Scandinavia being the most prosperous part of the world?
(Sweden is rich compared to the rest of the EU, but poor compared to Denmark, Iceland and Norway. In any case, an average Scandinavian family is way richer than their American counterpart)
- Know How, strong business traditions, high levels of education, natural resources, successful companies like Nokia, Ericsson and IKEA.
I can't deny we're blessed.
However, we have a very small work force of our own. Therefore, we've developed a "modern", "urban" societal model and culture that does not leave enough room for children.
We must rethink.
(Sweden is rich compared to the rest of the EU, but poor compared to Denmark, Iceland and Norway. In any case, an average Scandinavian family is way richer than their American counterpart)
Well having been to France, Belgium, Gemany, Switzerland, and Holland but not Sweden I can't argue with that but I can say that logically this means that the average Swede is far richer than the average family from any of those countries also..in other words it's a peculiarly Scandinavian situation.
Having visited these places, you've seen some of the richest parts of Europe. No doubt.
The Eu however, is poorer than the US.
A great task ahead of us EU supporters is teaching poverty strucken EU nations how to employ the "Swedish Model" of fiscal discipline.
Discipline is intrinsic to survival.
This insight is a must in order to overcome poverty.
The French riviera, Inner London, Oslo and Stockholm are rich, but also extremely silly places. People know absolutely nothing about what building national structures of economical power is all about.
Good for Sweden.
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