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I surmised at the time that the reason ABBA declined was that after having to pay the extremely high Swedish taxes, they have another 90% tax on top of that on rich people. After all taxes they wouldn't have made much.

Lived next to the town of Abha Saudi Arabia. Around town we would occasionally see signs mistranslated into English as ABBA. I wonder how many were done on purpose by the translator as a joke.

“I surmised at the time that the reason ABBA declined was that after having to pay the extremely high Swedish taxes, they have another 90% tax on top of that on rich people. After all taxes they wouldn't have made much.”

- This is true, to some extent. However, it has always been possible to build great fortunes in Sweden as long as you keep them in a company (that you own) and don't use them for private consumption.

In theory, this might stimulate investments, but in reality it's rather easy to move money around the world and use it for whatever purposes you like. By today, Swedish politicians have begun to rethink and even rich people live quite well, even on Swedish soil (while most rich Swedes still own much more luxurious apartments/condos/houses abroad):

http://www.skeppsholmen.se/english/displayObjectList.php?list=flats&section=hemTillSalu

http://www.skeppsholmen.se/english/displayObjectList.php?list=houses&section=hemTillSalu

http://www.skeppsholmen.se/english/displayObjectList.php?list=newProductionsForSale&section=nyproduktion