Why Sweden Embraced Capitalism
6/8/202620 min
Sweden, once considered by many as the standard bearer of high-tax and high-spend government, has embraced capitalism. WSJ’s Tom Fairless reports on how the Nordic country privatized large swaths of its healthcare and school systems, promoted business and shrank the state. Ryan Knutson hosts.
Further Listening:
- Germany’s Economy Is Spiraling. Can War Fix It?
- China's Cheap Goods Are Europe's Problem Now
Sign up for WSJ’s free What’s News newsletter.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit mega...
Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsRyan Knutson· Host0:00
[upbeat music] In recent years, Europe's economy hasn't been doing that well.
Speaker 1· Soundbite0:09
Britain's economy shrank unexpectedly in the three months to October.
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:14
Germany is facing a third straight year of economic crisis, with most Germans increasingly worried about making ends meet.
Speaker 1· Soundbite0:22
They're unlikely to be able to get France's debt under control anytime soon. It reached 3.3 trillion euros in June. That's 100- The main picture has been somewhat sad over the last few years, that there has been little growth, just repeated shocks that the economy struggles to rebound from.
Ryan Knutson· Host0:42
Tom Fairless is our global economics correspondent. Are there any countries in Europe that are doing well?
Tom Fairless0:50
Certainly Sweden does stand out.
Ryan Knutson· Host0:54
Sweden. Its economy is growing at roughly the same rate as the US, which is to say, pretty fast. The Nordic country that was once synonymous with big government is doing something else.
Tom Fairless1:09
Sweden, from an American point of view, from, from most countries' point of view, is the sort of gold standard of democratic socialism. What I found through this reporting is that actually what drives the dynamism is the extent to which it's, it's rolled back the state. That's what a lot of the economists I spoke to said, that