At a Nordic-Baltic Development Forum meeting, held in Riga some years ago, there arose a lively controversy on the relative merits of the Swedish (Nordic) model, on the one hand, and the minimal government and low-tax regimes of the Baltic countries, on the other. Göran Person, former prime minister of Sweden, reminded the audience that […]
Nordic Model Survives The Storm
What are the prospects for the Nordic-Baltic region (5+3) in a decidedly unstable international environment? The situation is radically different from what it looked like in the late 1980s and 90s. It is mostly due to external forces, which are in a flux, rather than due to any outstanding internal failures. When I became personally […]
What Can We Learn From The Nordic Model?
The neoliberal era started in the eighties as a revolt against the welfare state. It was a reassertion of the fundamentalist belief in market infallibility. It turned out to be a repeat version of history: Essentially it leads to casino capitalism, in the thrall of high finance, just as in the stock exchange crash in […]