Seriously, as a Swede, I hate the idea of Swedish companies trying to profit from the fact that USA has elected an enemy of free trade for president.
As a friend of America and of Capitalism, I truly hope Obama, in his coming encounters with my part of the world, will pay more attention to the national traits that during the last 150 years turned Sweden into a breeding ground for so many multinational business success stories, rather than Sweden's ability to vend cheap furniture and faith in ridiculous PC/Socialist experiments to liberals and leftists all over the planet.
The success of IKEA, Atlas Copco, Husqvarna, ABB, Electrolux, Volvo, H&M, Bofors, SAAB, SKF, Tetrapak, Securitas, ABB, Koenigsegg, Ericsson, Skype, AstraZeneca (as well as Björn Borg, ABBA and Absolut Vodka:D) etc, etc has very little to do with the kind of nanny state concept of society which Sweden has gained a “recognition” for (by, for instance, Democrats like Clinton and Galbraith and furthermore by most post-war European politicians at large!).
Fact is, the very foundation for the success of these companies was laid long before the true period of “Swedish Socialism”, namely the 1970s - 1980s, when Sweden's economic growth was among the weakest in all of the OECD area and even our Finance Minister/Secretary of the Treasury deemed the tax system created by his own (Social Democratic) predecessors “perverse”.
These decades of stupidity and lack of national awareness constitute a tale that offers no other moral than that of Socialism equaling failure and - in the long run - suicide.
Sweden is known for having high suicide rates. This is mainly because Eisenhower in 1960, claimed that “sin, nudity, drunkenness and suicide” in Sweden were due to welfare policy excess.
Today, Sweden is a small but influential nation well aware Capitalism is the only key to national success, while many Americans at the same time, sadly enough, believe the future of their nation lays in adopting the very same principles countries like Sweden, Britain, Norway, Finland and Denmark has abandoned.
Don't get me wrong.
I definitely believe in America - my continent's foremost ally - it's Obama's empty promises I don't believe in. USA is still the strongest nation on Earth and its major asset is Americans.
By the way, the IKEA Embrace Change 09 site:
I’m embracing the wince, 09.