Sweden’s new government, part II

Last Monday I wrote down my basic reflections about Sweden’s new government. A week later, two members of the government have resigned, and this might continue. The new government seems to be full of cheaters and tax-avoiders (for you non-Swedes out there, the now ex-Ministers of Trade and Culture have been avoiding paying taxes for their nannies, for their TVs, for their houses, etc etc so they have both resigned after about a week as members of Sweden’s new right-wing government).

You can read my editorial about all this here [in Swedish]. My main point is that even though these scandals causes a lot of problems for the new government, it won’t solve the basic problem of the Social democratic party: the leaders, the policies, and the rhetoric of 2006 won’t win the election in 2010…

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Still, the new government managed to present a new budget today. Here is my top-three list of things I don’t like in it:

1. The tax cuts aren’t financed (in 2007, eight of the 42 billion in tax cuts aren’t financed, and in 2008 16 of the 49 billion in tax cuts aren’t financed).
2. People who are long-term unemployed, sick, early retirees, or on parental leave will pay for the tax cuts.
3. The employment tax will be raised with some 6,1 billion, which will hurt small and mid-sized companies. For an entrepreneur with 2-3 employees, the annual tax will be raised by some 37 000 Swedish kronor. As a happy, modern social democrat I like small business cause they give people jobs and they pay taxes that we can spend on welfare for everyone.

And: Can someone promise me that the man who presented the budget, Minister of Finance Anders Borg, always have paid his taxes and never have bought services in the black market? Or will these stories continue?

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Went to see one of my favorite artists, Lloyd Cole, live for the first time last week. Thanks to a lot of luck and confusion in the box office I got a seat for free on the fifth row, and it was great to see him live. But the concert was not that well structured, and I basically agree with this review. Thanks to You Tube, you can see a clip from the concert here. ”You wanna leave me baby, be my guest, all I'm gonna do is cry...”