April 20 - 9:06PM
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| Anders Borg |
When Europe’s finance ministers meet for a group photo, it’s easy to spot the rebel — Anders Borg has a ponytail and earring. What actually marks him out, though, is how he responded to the crash. While most countries in Europe borrowed massively, Borg did not. Since becoming Sweden’s finance minister, his mission has been to pare back government. His ‘stimulus’ was a permanent tax cut. To critics, this was fiscal lunacy — the so-called ‘punk tax cutting’ agenda. Borg, on the other hand, thought lunacy meant repeating the economics of the 1970s and expecting a different result.
Three years on, it’s pretty clear who was right. ‘Look at Spain, Portugal or the UK, whose governments were arguing for large temporary stimulus,’ he 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.
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Thanks for sharing this, DS. Such a simple concept. Appears hard to understand why the Dems just don't get it.
ReplyDeleteBut their political philosophy requires a dependent class. To make policy something so reasonable as decreasing spending and cutting taxes would also necessarily decrease the number of citizens dependent on government for the basic necessities, like the article says.
When the people no longer depend on government for those basic necessities, the power shifts back to the people.
And that is what the Dems do not want to happen.
It is harder to seize and exert dictatorial control over a people who can and do take care of themselves and their families.
Nice summation of the article. I didn't have time to dwell on it. Thanks.
ReplyDelete