Sweden Threatens Global Economy

The Swedes have kept to their knitting, taken care of their citizens, kept it's own currency instead of the Euro, and generally stayed out of international disputes. The USA-based "think tank" New America Foundation has decided Sweden is a global threat.

Simple math shows that trade between nations must balance. Some nations will have more output than others, and this will change over time.
New America Foundation has singled out the tiny country of Sweden for the horror of exporting too much:

"Sweden has not taken sufficient measures to reduce its current account surplus," non-profit New America Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan US-based think tank, wrote in a statement on Thursday.

Speaking of countries like Sweden with current account surpluses, "...they pose an obstacle to the adjustment policies deficit economies must undertake to avoid or to get out of financial crises," the foundation said in a statement.

New America Foundation is essentially criticizing Sweden for not participating in the debt orgy that was a big part of the current financial crises that is particularly acute in several other European countries.

New America Foundation foundation goes on to recommend, ".. these countries to pursue other constructive policies, such as international development assistance."

Why would Sweden, which has effectively side-stepped most of the current financial crisis, want to participate in international programs that cripple countries?


The current account balance is

one of two major measures of the nature of a country's foreign trade (the other being the net capital outflow). A current account surplus increases a country's net foreign assets by the corresponding amount, and a current account deficit does the reverse. Both government and private payments are included in the calculation. It is called the current account because goods and services are generally consumed in the current period.