There are evenings when life feels pretty simple. You've eaten, maybe read something, maybe exercised, maybe watched a bad movie that was still pretty good. Then there are evenings when your whole life suddenly opens up like an old linen closet and everything falls out onto the floor at the same time. Then you can start to think about how…
Category: Efficiency
Relationships alone are not enough – happiness requires a holistic perspective
Relationships important but no miracles Good relationships are crucial for well-being. A long-term Harvard study with that message, the New York Times recently highlighted. The research supports it. People with warm, stable relationships live longer and happier on average. Isolation, on the contrary, can be as harmful as smoking. More time with family and friends actually increases…
Pyrrhic victory for Western financial markets that breaks the US world power order
The Iran deal shows something bigger than a war The so-called peace deal between the US and Iran is a largely completed peace agreement, even if Netanyahu challenges it a bit by continuing to bomb Lebanon. But Israel will probably have to give in to Trump and the US can no longer afford the political and economic price of…
The Liberals – lost in the shadow of the right
A party with a democratic tradition The Liberals carry a historical heritage that few Swedish parties can match. When the party was called the People's Party, liberal forces contributed to voting rights reforms and political modernization. With support from liberal voters, the Social Democrat Hjalmar Branting was able to take a seat in the Riksdag as early as 1896. This history shows that the will to social reform and liberal freedom have long been…
Better conditions for teachers strengthen Sweden's competitiveness
Every lesson requires more than just being present in the classroom. So we must create good conditions for teachers. Every teaching hour must provide at least the same amount of time for pre- and post-work. The older the students, the more time each teacher needs. Bo Jansson's government inquiry agrees. It also proposes reduced requirements for documentation and administration. Teachers…
Debt settlement too difficult to obtain
The fact that over-indebtedness is sky-high in Sweden is not just a personal tragedy for hundreds of thousands of people – it is a systemic failure that reveals something deeply immoral in our economic system. In the fall of 2025, collection requirements will decrease slightly, but that is because people are too poor to even borrow. Private debt mountain not necessary We live in a…
The crisis of hyperglobalization – and the path to a new green Bretton Woods
The crisis of hyperglobalization finally arrived. For several decades, the world had been governed by one idea: that more trade, more deregulation and more global capital mobility would automatically lead to prosperity. In the report “Out of the Ashes into the Fire,” Stefan de Vylder calls the period from 1980 to 2016 the era of hyperglobalization – an era in which the economy became increasingly…
“Goody, Goody Two Shoes” – the perfect swear word
“Goody, Goody Two Shoes” – the perfect insult for anyone who wants to take someone down a notch. And not just anyone, but the type who seems to float through life on a wave of superior excellence. We all know someone – or at least we’ve come across them. But where does this come from…
Saving the world starts with local protests
How do we save democracy, world peace, the climate and nature? Democracy wins the people and vulnerable groups through local protests historically. If they are of sufficient public interest, they spread. Today's capital is built on fragile international systems such as just-in-time. These are very sensitive to disruptions. If local protests spread, this could have a major effect. Could red-green…
The school's lack of results is due to cutbacks, lack of performance, municipalization and independent schools
In SvD, Henrik Dalgard raises important points about how a culture of adaptation and lowered requirements in teaching affect students and pupils. But it is crucial to place the problem in a larger context. The deteriorating results in school and students' reduced ability to write and analyze is not an isolated phenomenon. They are consequences of…