Tag Archives: Sweden

Sweden Is the Model, by Mike Whitney

Posted on May 10, 2020 | 1 comment

Sweden’s death rate per million puts it in the middle of Europe’s range, but unlike most other European nations (and the US), its refusal to institute mass lockdowns has given its people much greater herd immunity. From Mike Whitney at unz.com:

At present, there is no vaccine for the coronavirus. That means that one of the two paths to immunity is blocked. The other path is “herd immunity,” in which a critical mass of infection occurs in lower-risk populations that ultimately thwarts transmission.

Herd immunity is the only path that is currently available. Let that sink in for a minute. The only way our species can effectively resist the infection is through the development of specific antibodies or sensitized white blood cells. In other words, the only way we can lick this thing is by the majority of the population getting the infection and thereby developing immunity to future outbreaks.

That being the case, one would assume that the government’s policy would try to achieve herd immunity in the least painful way possible. (Young, low-risk people should go back to work if they so choose.) But that is not the government’s policy, in fact, the government’s policy is the exact opposite. US policy encourages people to remain at home and self quarantine until the government decides to lift the lockdown and allow some people to return to work. This policy assumes that the infection will have vanished by then, which of course, is extremely unlikely. The more probable outcome is that– when people return to work– there will be another surge in cases and another spike in deaths. We will have shifted the curve to a future date without having flattened it. We will have inflicted catastrophic damage on the economy and gained nothing. This is an idiotic policy that goes nowhere.

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Masks in Sweden: A Followup, by Daniel B. Klein

Posted on May 7, 2020 | Leave a comment

Coronavirus responses are not either-or. From Daniel B. Klein at aier.org:

In response to my piece on Masks in Sweden, I received the following fascinating note, by James Cooper, reproduced with his permission, which compares the attitude in Sweden with that in the United States. I think readers will find this very interesting.

Dr. Klein,

Thank you for your recent article on Sweden’s response to COVID-19. I would just like to add my thoughts to the ongoing public discussion. I am an American living in Stockholm. I have been living here for 17 years and am fluent in Swedish. I am from Northern Virginia.

Regarding this article, I will just point out that the American people have been buffalo’d into a very binary way of thinking – there are only two possibilities when dealing with COVID-19 – complete lockdown or nothing at all. This is also referred to as TINA (There Is No Alternative).

For many of my American friends, they find it difficult to understand that there are many possibilities in between the two extremes. In fact, a more nuanced approach not only makes more sense, but is more sustainable. That is precisely what the Swedish approach is all about.

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Now We Can All Hate Sweden, by Skinny

Posted on May 6, 2020 | 1 comment

Sweden used to be a liberal wet dream, but then it went its own way on the coronavirus. From Skinny at theburningplatform.com:

The Authoritarian Left Finds an Enemy in a Long Time Ally

It’s a sad day for the socialist left.  Scandinavia is no longer the socialist paradise of legend.  (It was never a socialist paradise to begin with, but we should never let the facts get in the way of a good legend.)   First it was Norway and visions of Ollie, the sustainable fisherman paddling around the fjords eking out a meager living.  He was dirt poor, but at least he was equal, and isn’t that the point.  The lefto looneys loved Norway and with a suicide rate high enough to make it the envy of the world, what’s not to love.  Then they discovered oil in the North Sea.  Anything but oil.

Why couldn’t they find unicorns or rainbows, or even solar panels, or Tesla batteries for that matter?  Why did it have to be oil?  And even worse, why did Norway have to harvest that oil.  Why couldn’t they just leave it under the seabed for Mother Gaia to drink?    And wealth.  If there is anything a lefty hates more than oil. it’s wealth. And Norway has it.  That gusher of black gold has lifted their per capita GDP to 78k per year ranking them 3rdth in the world.  They are still pretty equal but rich and equal.  Now instead of lutefisk, Ollie munches on caviar while sipping champagne on the deck of his sloop. To the misery loves company left, poor and unequal is preferable to rich and equal.  Just ask Cuba.

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As We Mull Leaving Lockdown, Is Sweden Model the Way Forward? by Christina Ramirez

Posted on May 3, 2020 | Leave a comment

Sweden’s unconventional response to the coronavirus outbreak has not doomed the country. Its numbers put it in the middle among countries, and the way it compiles those numbers may list more cases and deaths than other nations. From Christina Ramirez at realclearpolitics.com:

In most countries in Europe and North America, governments have imposed lockdowns of their populations and economies. At first glance, this strategy would seem to strike a reasonable, if painful, bargain: pay the price of (hopefully temporary) limits on civil liberties and economic recession (if not depression) to slow virus spread. The price has been very high. In the U.S. alone, the bill has already reached trillions of dollars of lost economic activity and tens of millions out of work. The material pain may go beyond economic insecurity. Many Americans face the real prospect of food shortages.

Sweden, however, has forged its own path. The government is emphasizing voluntary action over government mandates. Elementary schools and businesses, including bars, cafés, restaurants and gyms, are open. The government has urged people to act responsibly and follow social distancing guidelines.

Stockholm has reasoned that COVID-19 will require sustained interventions, even under optimistic timelines for the development of a vaccine. If true, the economic hardship and sacrifices to civil liberties involved in long-term societal shutdowns would become unjustifiable. So, the Swedish Public Health Authority has elected to pursue what it regards as a feasible goal of slowing the spread to prevent the overwhelming of its health care system while protecting the most vulnerable populations.

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Why Sweden Has Already Won the Debate on COVID ‘Lockdown’ Policy, by Patrick Henningsen

Posted on May 3, 2020 | 1 comment

Even if you accept the premise that governments had to “do something” about the coronavirus (SLL is highly skeptical), it doesn’t mean they all had to institute draconian house arrest and business closures. Sweden found another way. From Patrick Henningsen at 21stcenturywire.com:

As Europe and North America continue suffering their steady economic and social decline as a direct result of imposing ‘lockdown’ on their populations, other countries have taken a different approach to dealing with the coronavirus threat. You wouldn’t know it by listening to western politicians or mainstream media stenographers, there are also nonlockdown countries. They are led by Sweden, Iceland, Belarus, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Surprisingly to some, their results have been as good or better than the lockdown countries, but without having to endure the socio-economic chaos we are now witnessing across the world. For this reason alone, Sweden and others like them, have already won the policy debate, as well as the scientific one too.

Unlike much of the rest of the world who saw fit to unquestioningly follow China’s lead on everything from quarantining, to economic shutdowns, to contact tracing, and PCR mass testing, nonlockdown countries have instead opted for a somewhat lighter touch – preserving their economies and societies, and in doing so avoiding an endless daisy chain of new problems and obstacles deriving directly from the imposition of brutal lockdown policy.

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Sweden Is Right. The Economy Should be Left Open, by Mike Whitney

Posted on April 20, 2020 | Leave a comment

The Swedish non-lockdown approach, judged by per capita death rates, is no worse than lockdowns and in many instances is better. From Mike Whitney at unz.com:

Sometimes, the best thing to do, is to do nothing at all. Take Sweden, for example, where the government decided not to shut down the economy, but to take a more thoughtful and balanced approach. Sweden has kept its primary schools, restaurants, shops and gyms open for business even though fewer people are out in public or carrying on as they normally would. At the same time, the government has kept the Swedish people well-informed so they understand the risks the virus poses to their health and the health of others. This is how the Swedes have minimized their chances of getting the infection while avoiding more extreme measures like shelter-in-place which is de facto house arrest.

What the Swedish experiment demonstrates, is that there’s a way to navigate these unprecedented public health challenges without recklessly imposing police state policies and without doing irreparable harm to the economy. And, yes, the results of this experiment are not yet known, but what we do know is that most nations cannot simply print-up trillions of dollars to counter the knock-on effects of bringing the economy to a screeching halt. These countries must dip into their reserves or take out loans from the IMF in order to recover from the lack of production and activity. That means they’re going to face years of slow growth and high unemployment to dig out from the mess their leaders created for them.

And that rule applies to the US too, even though the government has been recklessly printing money to pay the bills. The unforeseen cost to the US will come in the form of long-term unemployment triggered by millions of failed small and mid-sized businesses. That grim scenario is all but certain now. And just as the USG “disappeared” millions of workers from the unemployment rolls following the 2008 Financial Crisis– forcing them to find low-paying, part-time, no-benefits work in the “gig” economy– so too, millions of more working people will fall through the cracks and wind up homeless, jobless and destitute following this crisis. One $1,200 check from Uncle Sam and a few weeks of unemployment compensation is not going to not be enough to prevent the fundamental restructuring of the US labor force that will be impossible to avoid if the economy isn’t restarted pronto.

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A Comparison Of Lockdown UK With Non-Lockdown Sweden, by Tyler Durden

Posted on April 14, 2020 | 1 comment

Sweden is certainly not an argument against a more laissez faire approach to the coronavirus outbreak. However, Sweden has now changed its approach to be in line with the rest of the world’s draconian approach. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

Update (0400ET): Stefan Lofven, Sweden’s prime minister, said today that after taking a “flexible” approach to restricting movements within its borders, the country’s coronavirus measures were “not good enough.”

Lofven, who has been PM since 2014 as part of a various coalitions, said previous governments and parties were responsible for the lack of equipment.

“All parties have a responsibility in that, because [civil defence] was something that was phased out gradually after the Cold War, so that’s three decades we’re talking about. Since then, many governments have contributed to this.”

A spokesman for the prime minister said last week:

“We want measures that work in the long run, since this pandemic likely will continue for months.”

*  *  *

Authored by Rob Slane via TheBlogMire.com,

So far as I am aware, Sweden remains the only major Western country that has not imposed a strict lockdown on its citizens to deal with the Covid-19 outbreak. Other than a ban on gatherings of 50 or more people, and advice such as over-70s being urged to stay at home, Swedish schools, shops, restaurants and pubs all remain open. It almost seems to me that the Government there has decided to treat grown adults like they are … well grown adults.

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Why Sweden Ended Its Negative Interest Rate Experiment, by Daniel Lacalle

Posted on January 8, 2020 | Leave a comment

To borrow from Orwell: there are some ideas that are so stupid on central bankers can believe them. From Daniel Lacalle at mises.org:

Negative rates are the destruction of money, an economic aberration based on the mistakes of many central banks and some of their economists, who start with a wrong diagnosis: the idea that economic agents do not take more credit or invest more because they choose to save too much and that therefore saving must be penalized to stimulate the economy. Excuse the bluntness, but it is a ludicrous idea.

Inflation and growth are not low due to excess savings, but because of excess debt, perpetuating overcapacity with low rates and high liquidity, and zombifying the economy by subsidizing the low-productivity and highly indebted sectors and penalizing high productivity with rising and confiscatory taxation.

Historical evidence of negative rates shows that they do not help reduce debt, they incentivize it. They do not strengthen the credit capacity of families, because the prices of nonreplicable assets (real estate, etc.) skyrockets because of monetary excess, and the lower cost of debt does not compensate for the greater risk.

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The Lies About Assange Must Stop Now, by John Pilger

Posted on November 25, 2019 | 2 comments

Many of the organs of the mainstream media have heaped scorn on Julian Assange. Some of them are awakening to the dangers of the US and British governments persecution of Assange and are sounding warnings, but their efforts are hypocritical and too little, too late. From John Pilger at consortiumnews.com:

If Julian Assange were to succumb to the cruelties heaped upon him, week after week, month after month, year upon year, as doctors warn, newspapers like The Guardianwill share the responsibility, writes John Pilger.

Newspapers and other media in the United States and Britain have recently declared a passion for freedom of speech, especially their right to publish freely.  They are worried by the “Assange effect”.  

It is as if the struggle of truth-tellers like Julian Assange and Chelsea Manning is now a warning to them: that the thugs who dragged Assange out of the Ecuadorean embassy in April may one day come for them.

A common refrain was echoed by The Guardian last week. The extradition of Assange, said the paper, “is not a question of how wise Mr. Assange is, still less how likable. It’s not about his character, nor his judgement. It’s a matter of press freedom and the public’s right to know.”  

What The Guardian is trying to do is separate Assange from his landmark achievements, which have both profited The Guardian and exposed its own vulnerability, along with its propensity to suck up to rapacious power and smear those who reveal its double standards.

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Now That Assange Is Safely Locked Up, Sweden Drops Its “Investigation”, by Caitlin Johnstone

Posted on November 21, 2019 | 1 comment

The stench of hypocrisy from Sweden is overwhelming. From Caitlin Johnstone at caitlinjohnstone.com:

Now that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is safely locked up in Belmarsh prison awaiting a US extradition hearing, Sweden has, for a third time, dropped its rape investigation.

“After conducting a comprehensive assessment of what has emerged during the course of the preliminary investigation I then make the assessment that the evidence is not strong enough to form the basis for filing an indictment,” said deputy chief prosecutor Eva-Marie Persson at a press conference in Stockholm on Tuesday.

This decision comes days after the UN Special Rapporteur on Torture Nils Melzer began making noise about the Swedish government’s refusal to answer his questions on the many enormous, glaring plot holes in the investigation which began in 2010. These plot holes include “proactive manipulation of evidence” with the testimony of the alleged victim, a condom provided as evidence that had neither the DNA of Assange nor of the alleged victim on it, complete disregard for confidentiality rules and normal investigative protocol from the earliest moments of the investigation onward, disregard for conflicts of interest, Sweden’s refusal to provide assurance that Assange would not be extradited to the US if he went there to answer questions, statements made by the alleged victims which contradict the allegations, unexplained correspondence between Swedish prosecutors and the FBI, and many others.

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