All thanks to a conservative government with a libertarian finance minister with an earring and a ponytail:
‘Look at Spain, Portugal or the UK, whose governments were arguing for large temporary stimulus,’ [Anders Borg] says. ‘Well, we can see that very little of the stimulus went to the economy. But they are stuck with the debt.’ Tax-cutting Sweden, by contrast, had the fastest growth in Europe last year, when it also celebrated the abolition of its deficit. The recovery started just in time for the 2010 Swedish election, in which the Conservatives were re-elected for the first time in history. ...
His main advice to [the UK] is: ‘Keep on dealing with the deficit, because deficits destroy everything else.’
[O]n Reinfeldt’s 45th birthday, Borg presented him with a graph showing Sweden’s tax-to-GDP ratio dipping under the 45 per cent mark for the first time in decades.
Read the whole story here at the UK Spectator.
