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January 24, 2009
Waldemar Ingdahl interviewed by Al Jazeera
Waldemar Ingdahl was interviewed by the Al Jazeera English newschannel about the current economic crisis, the present state of the Swedish model and how Sweden faired in the economic meltdown in the early 90's.
The interview was held on the main square of Vällingby, a Stockholm suburb often seen as the symbol of the Swedish middle-way Welfare state. The commercial center Vällingby City was renovated and re- inaugurated in April 2008, and a fitting symbol of the economic and social changes in Sweden.
Waldemar Ingdahl and the Al Jazeera newsteam
In the interview Ingdahl explained the background of the Swedish model as given in his The Freeman article The New Sweden, Ingdahl talked about the banking crisis in the early 90's from his article in The American Banking Lessons From Sweden and he described the present developments in Swedish society from Swedish public considers controversial reforms too harsh in the Financial Times.
Ingdahl presented a picture of Sweden that is seldom heard abroad. Sweden is often used as a showcase of the classical liberal social democratic model welfare state and explained as resistant and successful in times of changes. Sweden is also used as a conservative showcase for why the welfare state does not work, but increasingly the conservative point of view is changing towards showing why Sweden is an example of how reform of the welfare state can be done. Ingdahl pointed out some of the pitfalls of this conservative approach and why the liberal social democratic view of welfare state resiliance needs to be amended. He also pointed out some of the issues regarding demographic and cultural changes in Sweden in recent years.
The interview with Ingdahl was held in front of the classical cinema theatre Fontänen in Vällingby and was broadcast on January 7th.
Posted by Waldemar at January 24, 2009 11:30 AM