WORLD : Swedish Economy ‘Falling Apart’
Swedish Prime Minister Ingvar Carlsson today said the economy is “falling apart” and his government will resign unless Parliament bans strikes and imposes a wage-price freeze for two years.
The plan that Finance Minister Kjell-Olof Feldt outlined in Parliament would also put a two-year freeze on local taxes, rents and stock dividends.
Collective bargaining is a pillar of the Swedish welfare system, which has eliminated poverty and guaranteed health care and education for everyone. The Swedish mix of socialism and capitalism became a model for the industrial welfare state.
“What was known as the Swedish Model is, on the whole, gone, and this is just another sign,” bank economist Nils Lundgren said on Swedish radio.
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