• 'Nordics more economically free than the UK'
• 'Swedish model' outranks 'American dream'

Bloomberg said that many Americans still think of Sweden as a tightly regulated social-welfare state, but in the last two decades the country has been reformed. Public spending has fallen by no less than one-fifth of gross domestic product, taxes have dropped and markets have opened up.

And the turnabout has been dramatic.

Anders Åslund, a senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a professor at the Stockholm School of Economics from 1989 until 1994, has written a report on the current Swedish situation in a historic perspective.

"Sweden’s traditional scourge is taxes, which used to be the highest in the world. The current [center-right] government has cut them every year and abolished wealth taxes. Inheritance and gift taxes are also gone. 

"The Social Democrats haven’t only joined the free-market consensus, but seem to attack the current government from the right, pushing for a better business environment. Gone are demands for the restoration of social benefits.

"Sweden is still offering good social welfare, but more efficiently and sensibly and increasingly through the private sector.