Borg excels
Sven Otto Littorin
16 Oct 2024
During Easter 2003, Anders Borg and I spent time with our families in a cabin in the mountains. Just six months earlier, we had started working for the Moderate Party – Anders as chief economist and head of the parliamentary office, and I as party secretary, i.e., the “CEO” of the party organization.
It was a turbulent time. The Moderates had lost the 2002 election in a resounding defeat. One-third of voters had abandoned us since the previous election, which also meant we lost one-third of our seats. The revenue for a party without lottery sales in Barcelona is almost entirely dependent on public party funding, which is tied to parliamentary seats – meaning the party’s finances were in ruins. But worse still, even the voters we retained in the 2002 election didn’t seem to like us or our policies very much.
The first thing we did when we started was to try to create a business plan based on three dimensions: our fundamental ideological mission, a review and prioritization of the societal problems we wanted to solve, and a direction for the ongoing work to make our policies possible to implement. In other words, we sought answers to the questions: why, what, and how. And we tried to do so with as few blinders or preconceived notions as possible.
That business plan became the starting point for the work that led to the 2006 election victory and the following eight years in government. The main ingredients of the reforms that were implemented are still in place more than 20 years later, regardless of the government’s political color. The tax deductions for work remain, the start-up jobs are still there, and the unemployment insurance changes have only been rolled back marginally.
Anders Borg has recently published a new book: Where Are We Heading? (Albert Bonniers Förlag, 2024). In my view, the book shares the same ambition as that business plan: to seek answers to the why, what, and how from a Swedish perspective. Why is what’s happening happening? What should we be prepared for, and what should be done? And how should it be done?
Borg has produced a well-written, well-argued, and well-researched book, based on several global megatrends: Ukraine/Russia, a stagnating China, U.S. dominance with or without Trump, the next Euro crisis, and India’s growing importance. He writes about central and complex issues for Sweden: migration and integration, the renaissance of industry in Sweden, and the future of the Swedish model.
Borg’s starting point is that we are living in difficult times, with geopolitical tensions that could easily escalate into crises of immense proportions. If China were to invade Taiwan while the war in Ukraine is still ongoing and the EU is already in stagnation, we could enter a crisis that could be as intense as a combined COVID-19 and financial crisis. At the same time, Borg reminds us that the high inflation and interest rate hikes of recent years didn’t lead to the prolonged stagflation and recession many feared. On the contrary, interest rates seem poised to drop quickly, and the economy is expected to recover.
The conclusion is optimistic: the future is bright, despite the problems and challenges. Jobs are increasing, the opportunities in technological development are almost limitless, and we are living longer and wealthier lives. How can we as citizens navigate these treacherous waters to partake in this positive future? Borg sums it up: "Resilience, adaptability, education, work, and savings are the foundations of security and progress."
If Anders Borg were a political party, I would vote for him. His clear and focused analysis, his solid evidence-based descriptions, and his tech-optimistic view of the future are refreshing in these times of confrontation and extremism.
Whether or not one would vote for Borg, his book is worth reading. It provides a clear picture of where Sweden and the world stand today and why there is good reason to be optimistic, especially if you are prepared. In short, a dose of Borg makes you wiser. That was true in 2003, and it’s true in 2024.
For Stadsholmen Equity’s clients, partners, and friends, the conclusion is also that there is every reason to continue investing in unlisted companies. Borg points out that the opportunities in technological development have a rare chance of being converted into new companies and jobs, especially in our part of the world.
Sven Otto Littorin Partner, Stadsholmen Equity