Worse unemployment insurance for the long-term unemployed, higher unemployment, eroded welfare resources and tax cuts that have greatly benefited high-income earners. A new report from Katalys examines what the institute describes as the Sweden Democrats' betrayal of the workers, unemployed and low-income earners who helped the party to power. The SD received 29 percent of the workers' votes in the 2022 election and 27 percent among LO members….
Category: The financial power
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…
Strikes, knowledge and demonstrations drive society
History shows that almost all major reforms have started with ordinary people rising up. Kjell Östberg's book People in Motion describes how the right to vote, the eight-hour day and welfare did not come from above but grew out of strikes, demonstrations and union struggles. Workers, women, students and soldiers in uniform took to the streets together and demanded dignity,…
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…
From the public home to the financial crisis
Anders Borg's confession and the false burden of debt In 2005, Anders Borg admitted that it was not welfare that caused the 1990s crisis, but a misvalued exchange rate and poorly managed macroeconomic policy. Despite this, welfare was left to bear the blame. The Moderates used this narrative to push through attacks on wage earners, privatizations and cuts. Already in 2006, when Fredrik Reinfeldt won the election,…
Financialization a bigger price increaser than food shortages
When rumors rule more than reality Food prices have skyrocketed in recent years, and the reasons are more complicated than they first appear. Financial market speculation and stockpiling by major players control food prices more than actual shortages of raw materials. Sweden has also made itself vulnerable by eliminating its emergency stocks and becoming increasingly dependent on imported food….
Cooperation, care and human success - from the Stone Age to today
Stone Age Stone Age people survived not because they were the strongest or fastest, but because they could cooperate and care for each other in unlimited numbers. Researchers have found graves that show that even people with disabilities were cared for and buried with respect. This tells us that society depended on everyone…
Social Democracy's challenge
In Movement, Johan Sjölander raises an important and pressing criticism of the Social Democrats. Sjölander puts his finger on a painful truth – that the party has long been accused of drifting to the right. Now the party has actually drifted far too far to the right. But Sjölander's criticism is too mild. The reality is that the Social Democrats, together with their allies…
Nobel Prize on Power and Progress
An ideology in power that favors workers must guide technological development. It determines whether we get a fairer world. Technological progress has not always meant better working conditions or higher wages for everyone. We need to develop innovations that help workers become better at their tasks, not just replace them with automation. Then the technology would…