GlobLog - October 2005
A direct link to each entry is obtained by using the button below the entry.

14:31 - WHY I DON´T ALLOW COMMENTS ON THE BLOG: 

Some purists say that this is not a blog since I don´t allow comments from the readers. That doesn´t bother me the least. They sound like the French classicists who said that Victor Hugo´s Hernani wasn´t drama because it didn´t follow the "unity of place". I do this because I think it´s a good idea, not to fit someone´s definition.

But since I have been challenged by Chadie to open up for dialogue on the blog, I´d like to explain why I don´t. I have tried it before, and the comment section was quickly and repeatedly filled with dirty words, hate mail and even threats, often from racists and the extreme left. And I don´t have the time to moderate it and get rid of the worst things, much less to reply. It works if you have few readers and few opponents bent on destroying the forum. But for me, I can´t even respond to all the email I get as it is.

So in other words, I am not opposed to a dialogue, but I don´t see the point of multiple monologues at once. Instead I continue like this, listen to reactions, respond to other blogs, and react to (and quote) some of the email, here on the blog.

16:13 - AN IMPORTANT BLOG: 

I have recommended Hans Rosling before, a professor in international health who educates us all about the worldwide improvement of living standards. Now he has started a very promising blog, and he starts off by showing that UNICEF has a 20 year old image of Bangladesh.

And check out his animated statistics at Gapminder.

14:16 - OFF TO SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE: 

Now I am going to Turkey for a week, and won´t respond to email meanwhile. Despite the slightly better offer from the EU, I wouldn´t be surprised if the WTO negotiations have broken down when I return. France is behaving worse than ususal.

By the way, here is a good point about Turkey, from the Czech president Vaclav Klaus:

00:54 - READ THIS BEFORE YOU SURRENDER TO CHIRAC, III: 

16:12 - LINDERBORG AGAIN: 

As you know, Åsa Linderborg is not too careful with the truth in her crusade against the US. Today she claims that Time Magazine supported Suharto´s mass murders. Michael Moynihan shows convincingly that either she has not read the Time article, or she is lying.

Linderborg has a Ph.D. in history. Who taught her criticism of one´s sources?

15:36 - READ THIS BEFORE YOU SURRENDER TO CHIRAC, II: 

11:20 - READ THIS BEFORE YOU SURRENDER TO CHIRAC, I: 

14:00 - VIDAREBEFODRADE VANDRINGSHISTORIER: 

11:45 - HUR HAR VI KLARAT OSS UTAN DETTA?: 

De nya tjänsterna från Bosse Ringholm (Tack Majed)

08:52 - AXIS OF PROTECTIONISM: 

Today the EU leaders meet to smooth over differences of opinion between Blair´s modernisers and Chirac´s protectionists. For some reason, the more childish and unconstructive French politicians are, the more other countries try to please them. Unfortunately, Blair has now begun to agree about the need for a "globalisation fund" to help workers adapt to restructuring. If done in the right way, this is precisely the kind of sensible idea that does not make sense at the EU level. Just do it yourself, if it´s a good idea.

The elephant in the meeting room that no one wants to talk about, is that the EU is right now destroying the World Trade Organisation, by not  offering real reforms of the CAP. France is of course worst, with a president who talks loud and hypocritically about the problems of world poverty while he vehemently defendes a protectionist policy that kills (pdf) people every day.

But the following EU countries also support France´s obstructions. If you live there, use this last opportunity to protest and write to your politicians, who will go down in history as those responsible for a failure that will hurt Europe and the world´s poor.

16:03 - SKUGGE TAR TILLBAKA PÅ BLOGGEN MEN ENVISAS I PAPPERSTIDNINGEN: 

Alla gör misstag. Det är inget konstigt med det. Men sedan finns det två sorts människor: De som ser rättelser som ett sätt att lära sig mer om världen, och som därför inte är rädda för motargument, och därför gärna ändrar sig när de har hört mer fakta. Och så finns det de som inte gör det. I medievärlden är tyvärr det senare vanligt, där journalister och tidningar tycks tro att det är ett nederlag att erkänna ett misstag.

Linda Skugge verkar tillhöra den senare sorten. Hon skrev häromveckan att alla på Timbro var homofober och abortmotståndare. I den efterföljande debatten på sin blogg erkände hon att hon inte kom på en enda person på Timbro som var homofob (eller abortmotståndare), och berömde tvärtom timbroiter som mig och Mattias Svensson som kämpat för liberala åsikter i denna fråga.

I lördagens krönika hade hon chansen att ta tillbaka påståendet även för en bredare allmänhet. Tvärtom upprepar hon då plötsligt vad hon skrivit, och låtsas att det låg något i det genom att blanda ihop Timbros åsikter med moderaters och kristdemokraters åsikter.

Hon vet att hon har fel och rättfärdigar sin felaktiga generalisering med påståendet: "Jag generaliserar exakt så som högern jämt gör om oss feminister." Andras felaktiga påståenden blir alltså en ursäkt för att själv föra fram felaktiga påståenden. Snacka om race to the bottom.

11:19 - A REAL AMERICAN HERO: 

 


The bus driver shouted, "Aren´t you going to stand up?"

 "No," she replied.

 "Well, I´m going to have you arrested," he declared.

 "You may do that," was Rosa Parks´ calm response.

23:54 - GREEN CHINA?: 

One of my points in In Defence of Global Capitalism was there are big environmental problems, but that we need more, not less wealth to deal with them. If you don´t afford food and clean water, you won´t afford to care about nature. And I also say that poor countries will deal with these problems earlier in their development than we did, because they can learn from our mistakes, and they can use the cleaner technology that we have developed.

Now compare that thesis to this graph from the latest The Economist:

17:12 - IN A COUNTRY RULED BY THE TALIBANS 4 YEARS AGO: 

12:18 - SURFING THE CLOUDS: 

Right now I am flying over England, on my way home from the US. And since SAS is the first airline to offer wireless high-speed connection in all passenger classes on all transcontinental flights, I just had to try it before it becomes commonplace - and possibly a bit annoying. Because unfortunately, this will make it harder to say: "Sorry, I couldn´t read it, I was on the plane."

But for the moment, I am just enjoying the wonders of technology. I love it.

20:56 - VAD TIMBRO INTE FÅR KORRIGERA PÅ DN DEBATT: 

Mats Bergstrand har förklarat att Timbro inte får någon replik på Tiina Rosenbergs artikel på DN Debatt. Jag förstår hans allmänna kritik mot alla som begär slentrianrepliker utan att tillföra något i sak. Men i det här fallet blir det märkligt eftersom Rosenberg målar upp en bild av att Timbro skulle förfölja henne som person, baserad på följande direkt falska påståenden:

2) Hon hävdar att Popova var "Timbros utsända" när hon kritiserade Anna Wahl.

3) Hon felciterar Timbros följebrev till Och världen skälvde, för att få det att se ut som ett hot.

4) Hon påstår att Johan Tralau är "Timbroanknuten".

5) Hon skriver att homofobi legat bakom kritiken mot henne. Hon skriver inte direkt att Timbro skulle ha gjort sig skyldigt till det, men eftersom hon skriver att "Alla vägar tycks leda till Timbro och Svenska Dagbladets ledarsida" så kletar onekligen den beskyllningen av sig på Timbro och SvD. I så fall, varför inte ge ett enda exempel på när dessa givit uttryck för homofobi?

Det är lite väl många falska påståenden för att vara ett misstag. Om Rosenberg bedriver forskning som hon skriver debattartiklar förstår jag kritiken mot henne som forskare. Som jag tidigare har skrivit är jag övertygad om att hon medvetet ljuger för att svartmåla sina kritiker. Hon kan inte vara så här totalt oinformerad.

Problemet med att Timbro inte får korrigera dessa påståenden på DN Debatt är att Rosenbergs lögner kommer att sjunka in i det allmänna medvetandet. De som skriver historien kommer att hitta hennes artikel, men inte dessa korrigeringar.

Får man i all välmening föreslå att DN Debatt i alla fall startar ett webbforum, där repliker som inte får plats i papperstidningen kan publiceras? Det kanske skulle tvinga personer som Rosenberg att argumentera för sina påståenden.

17:55 - WILL THE LEFT LISTEN TO BOLIVIAN WORKERS THIS TIME?: 

Bolivian workers march on the US Embassy to demand Bolivia´s immediate entry into the free trade agreement the Andean nations are negotiating with the US. (via the Neocon blog)

23:48 - SEATTLE 1.3: 

I am in the US for a couple of days, and won´t respond to email. But I have been asked what I think about the WTO negotiations, and thought I would share my thoughts.

The much discussed generous offer from the US on agriculture is better than expected, but not much. The offer to cut tariffs and subsidies are not really about tariffs and subsidies, but ceilings, and they are much higher than the real tariffs and subsidies. And "trade distorting" subsidies are often just rebranded. According to Oxfam, the US offer would just cut agricultural spending from $74.7 billion a year to $73.1.

However, EU has not matched this offer, and countries like Japan, South Korea, Switzerland and Norway are also eager to block moves towards free trade in food. The real villain is France - which has attacked the EU response for being too generous, and stops trade commissioner Mandelson from negotiating seriously. For French politicians, including supposedly market-liberal ones like Nicolas Sarkozy, it´s much more important to pander to wealthy, unproductive farmers, than to reduce world poverty and increase global wealth. I am ashamed of belonging to a European Union that lets them get away with it.

Once again, rich countries sacrifice development because they don´t dare to stand up to their special interests. And once again, developing countries refuse to accept it. It happened in Seattle and it happened in Cancun. It looks like Hong Kong will be Seattle 1.3.

UPDATE 2005-10-23 23:48: I wrote Seattle 2.2. But Seattle was 1.1, Cancun was 1.2, so this has to be Seattle 1.3.

13:08 - SOMETHING NEO: 

I am often asked what I am going to do when I leave Timbro. Well, I am going to do a lot of different things, and I don´t yet know all of them. But when I do, I´ll let you know.

12:32 - RÄTT KVINNA PÅ RÄTT PLATS: 

Jag föreläste just för drygt tusen företagare i Göteborg om vad vi ska göra av den internationella konkurrensen, och efteråt blev jag utfrågad av Lars Adaktusson. Han frågade vad jag ska rösta på. Jag är ju inte helt säker, men jag avslöjade i alla fall min hemliga dröm för att få ordning på politiken:

S-regeringen hade ju en vice statsminister som skulle lägga ett jämställdhetsperpsktiv på alla frågor. Jag skulle vilja se Maud Olofsson som vice statsminister, med uppgift att lägga ett skaparperspektiv på alla frågor. Maud, som är den mest engagerade förespråkaren för företagsamhet av partiledarna, skulle fungera som en grindvakt. När departementen skickar fram ett visst förslag ska hon kunna säga att detta är nog bra och vettigt i sig, men det gör det faktiskt lite, lite svårare för landets skapare och entreprenörer, så det går rakt ned i papperskorgen. Punkt slut.

Bara det går i uppfyllelse kan regeringen sen se ut hur som helst.

07:53 - IT´S THE ECONOMY STUPID: 

The Economist quotes a new UN report, Forests and floods: drowning in fiction or thriving on facts?, which says that deforestation is not to blame for floods. Trees can apparently only reduce the effect of drizzly rain over small areas, and has no effect on major floods. And neither can tree roots do anything about landslides of more than a meter´s depth. It seems like the reason we notice more floods is not environmental devestation, but economic growth:

"Towns and cities have long been established on flood plains, despite the risk of periodic flooding. This is because the numerous social and economic benefits of living near water tend to outweigh the risk. Historically, such settlements have clung to the higher ground on the flood plain. But as towns and cities have grown, new housing estates and commercial zones have been built on ever more flood-prone areas...

In reality, the huge economic losses attributed to flooding in recent years are mainly a reflection of economic growth, increased investment in infrastructure and rapidly growing flood plain populations. Floods are no more frequent today than they were 120 years ago, when lush forests were abundant. The problem is just that more people now live and work on flood plains."

22:58 - DEBATTEN OM MIN MILJÖRAPPORT: 

Min rapport om att svenskar har missat framstegen var gäller utveckling och miljö har fått mycket uppmärksamhet på landets ledarsidor, om än inte alls på nyhetsplats. Och en anledning till att debatten inte har blossat upp på allvar är att jag inte har fått några egentliga mothugg. Motståndarna har varit tysta som graven. Det enda jag har hört från miljövänner är några som håller med om riskerna med att larma ihjäl sig och att inte ta åt sig äran för de förbättringar som har skett.

Däremot har en del synts i bloggosfären vilket jag inte har hunnit svara på eftersom jag varit på andra sidan jordklotet, och i morgon far jag till USA på en knapp vecka, så jag kommer inte att vara så väldigt tillgänglig då heller. Men jag tycker att alltid saklige Andreas Bergh på ett föredömligt sätt har sammanfattat invändningarna - och vad jag skulle ha svarat.

Jag har hört ytterligare en invändning, nämligen att jag har gjort ett skevt urval frågor. Jag tar ju bara upp de områden som har förbättrats, och inte de nya problemen, som t ex utfiskning och växthuseffekt. Men detta var ju min poäng, att det har skett väldiga framsteg vad gäller klassiska miljöproblem och att ingen har berättat om det för folk. Och i rapporten skriver jag att det alltid kommer nya - jag nämner just utfiskning och växthuseffekt - och att vi inte kommer att förstå hur vi hanterar dem om vi inte förstår hur vi hanterade de gamla problemen.

Bergh nämner en egen tänkbar invändning, att Värlsdbankens fattigdomsbegrepp är kontroversiellt. Det är jag den förste att instämma i, men jag har valt det för att jag ville använda officiella siffror som används av så många som möjligt. Men det finns mycket att invända åt båda håll, och på marginalen skulle jag gissa att Världsbankens mått överdriver fattigdomen i världen. Om det har jag skrev jag för två år sedan denna understreckare.

09:58 - PLAYING PLAYING THE ANGEL: 



Jonas Morian once compared us Depeche Mode-fans to social democrats - whatever they do, we always buy their new stuff, even though we constantly complain that they used to be much better. Stop complaining. The new album is really, really good, darker, with stronger melodies and more classical electronic sounds. Here is my top 5 for the moment:

08:37 - A PAYRISE FOR EUROPEAN COWS: 

I often use the figure that a European cow gets $2 a day in subsidies - more than the average income of 2.7 billion people around the world. Now things have changed. Europe´s cows have had a pay rise. Oxfam´s calculations show that they used to get $2.20 a day, but in 2003, they got $2.62. (via Alex Singleton)

17:36 - FAREWELL TO ARMS: 

The first Human Security Report has been published by Oxford University Press. And human security is improving. Here are some highlights:

14:07 - NYANSERAD SKUGGE: 

10:29 - BACK ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE GLOBE: 

As you might have guessed from the recent activity on this blog, I just got back from my around the world-trip to New Zealand and Australia (it took 36 hours to get back, I´m glad I brought a book). Now I´m home a few days before I go to the US, and then home a few days before I go to Turkey. I really enjoyed the two countries downunder, and not just the wonderful Lord of the Rings-tour. I was amazed by their interest in globalisation. I got the impression that I talked to every single journalist there, and that every paper portrayed me and published excerpts from my lecture.

I am impresed by the work of everybody at The Centre for Independent Studies, the efficient and very welcoming think-tank that arranged the whole trip. Greg Lindsay founded it in 1976, and he still runs it with vision and a great sense of humour, able to influence both sides of the political spectrum. If you get a chance to go to one of their meetings in the future, take it.

CIS also used the occasion to publish another version of In Defence - the Australasian. Improved and updated with local examples by April Palmerlee and Gaurav Sodhi, and designed by Carolynn Chen.
 
                                                              

08:40 - ROSENBERG - IGEN: 

19:07 - THE MAN WHO WAS PROVEN RIGHT: 

On the 6th of August 1980, Arthur Seldon presented this brave prognosis in The Times:

14:17 - MAKING THE LISTS: 

Prospect and Foreign Policy just announced the results of their Global public intellectuals poll. Over 20 000 people voted, and Chomsky, Eco, Dawkins, Havel and Hitchens made the top five. Very flattering for me is the "bonus ball" nominations, where voters could nominate names they thought should have been included on the original list of 100 nominated intellectuals. I am No 7, right after Bill Clinton and Joseph Stiglitz, and just ahead of Dalai Lama and Thomas Sowell.

On a very different list I am No. 23, after singer Jessica Simpson, and in a tie with reality-show actress/model Natacha Peyre. This list is not about global public intellectuals, though. It´s about the people most often mentioned on Swedish blogs. You might have guessed that from the "Biography" on Peyre´s website. It has a different character from the bios of people like Havel and Dalai Lama:

13:44 - SKUGGES SAMMANBLANDNING: 

10:37 - WHAT MAKES US HAPPY: 

Americans are happier than Europeans. I am trying to explain why and what it says about wellbeing research in an op-ed in Los Angeles Times.

10:20 - JAG KEDJEBLOGGAR: 

20:50 - MAIL TILL LINDA SKUGGE: 

13:41 - HAVEN´T YOU READ ANYTHING BY HAROLD PINTER?: 

Then why not read this statement from the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milosevic, where Pinter is vice chairman, brought to my attention by Smedjan/Sticket:

"The ICDSM condemns the unconstitutional and illegal abduction of president Milosevic and his delivery to the Hague ´tribunal´ as an attack on Yugoslav sovereignty carried out by the USA, NATO and their Serbian puppets. The ICDSM demands the immediate release of president Milosevic from his illegal detention in the Hague and the abolition of the illegitimate so-called ´International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia´ as an extension of NATO and a tool used against the resistance of freedom fighters and patriots."

I don´t know if his support of the fascist Serbian mass murderer (or his defence of Castro) is the reason why Pinter gets the Nobel Prize in literature, but it follows a modern tradition of awarding authors who hate liberal democracy and the free market.

13:18 - DOES BUSH SPEND LIKE CLINTON OR LIKE A DRUNKEN SAILOR?: 

In an interesting post Tino Sanandaji writes that President Bush is not the great spender that libertarians and limited government conservatives claim. As a proportion of GDP, both Nixon and Johnson outspent him. However, I think agree with Katallaxi that it is more interesting to look at the absolute increase in absolute spending, rather than adjusting it for change in GDP. Otherwise we assume that it is natural to increase spending as incomes rise, and rapid growth would hide rapid spending increases. (Thanks Kristian)

Another interesting fact is that no matter how you count, Bill Clinton seems to be the best one of recent presidents when it comes to spending. One important reason, of course, was that the Republican Congress restrained him. Republicans are good - as long as they are in opposition.

07:23 - REPORT FROM NEW ZEALAND: 

New Zealand is another very nice and welcoming country. And it has also gone through a remarkable change to get ready for globalisation. From 1984 and until the early 1990s, the almost isolationist economy was opened rapidly, and the country went from having the 30th to the 3d freest economy in the world. Instead of stagnation New Zealand got healthy growth rates and almost another half a million new jobs on net - which is a lot in a country of 4 million.

New Zealand has done one thing in particular that Europe should try - it abolished protection and subsidies for agriculture. And what happened when farmers began producing for consumers instead of the government? It increased agricultural productivity by 1 percent a year, and actually raised agriculture´s share of the total economy - from 14 percent in 1986-87 to 16.6 percent in 1999-2000.

And thanks to low taxes, deregulation, non-unionised labour, and the fantastic landscape, New Zealand was a perfect location to shoot the Lord of the Rings, and now it is one of the world´s leading countries in filmmaking.

13:13 - KORRIGERING OM TIINA ROSENBERG: 

12:34 - OM TIINA ROSENBERG : 

04:27 - DIFFERENCES DOWNUNDER: 

Some things never change despite globalisation - the fascination for local celebrities, for example. In Australia, several of the journalists were interested in the fact that I am a fan of the Australian musician Nick Cave. One of the biggest papers even asked me what I thought that Cave would think of my political views.

And here in New Zealand, two journalists have asked me about my fascination for New Zealand´s Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings-movies. I like that. It´s nice to get to talk about Cave and Jackson for a change, and not just about Smith and Rand.

I noticed another interesting difference when it comes to regulations of night life. In Sydney, it is extremely difficult for new competitors to get a license to start a new restaurant, bar or club, and apparently almost no one under 40 has a bar. And here in Auckland a lot of places have a BYO-license - bring your own alcohol...

07:18 - REPORT FROM THE 22ND BONYTHON LECTURER: 

Yesterday I delivered the Annual John Bonython Lecture in Sydney, in front of a very kind and welcoming audience of about 400 Australians. It was about why almost everything gets better, and why no one believes me when I say so. A transcript is available on the website of the Centre for Independent Studies. There has been a lot of media attention, and I particularly like the fact that when I read the national daily The Australian this morning, it had me on the front page, in the news section AND on the op-ed page. I should get me a subscription...

Tonight I am off to New Zealand.

03:30 - THIS IS A WARNING: 

Sydney must be one of the most beautiful places on earth, particularly where the botanical garden meets the sea and the opera house, and there are scyscrapers everywhere in the background. Judging from my first impression the Australians are also extraordinarily welcoming, liberal and tolerant. I just had an interesting conversation with a taxi driver about the benefits he thought that globalisation has brought Australia.

Australia has a very interesting story to tell. The very regulated economy was deteriorating in the 1970s and early 1980s, but then a series of liberal and labour governments liberalised and opened the economy. They introduced private pension accounts two decades ago, and turned from protectionism to free trade. Since then, Australia has grown rapidly and unemployment has been halved. And the positive circle continues with more liberal reforms. It is now the 7th freest economy in the world. With this optimistic and global mindset, Australia is very well placed to benefit even more from globalisation.

This is a warning: In the future, you will hear more from me about the Australian example.

12:17 - BEATING MR FOGG: 

Right now I am in Singapore for a few hours, on my journey around the world in 10 days: Stockholm-London-Singapore-Sydney-Auckland-Los Angeles-Stockholm. Isn´t modern ways of travelling a miracle? I manage to beat Jules Verne´s Phileas Fogg by 70 days, and still have the time to deliver several lectures, travel around in Australia and New Zealand, and - most important of all - go on a Lord of the Rings tour in New Zealand.

10:33 - ONLINE: 



Now my report on Swedish beliefs about the environment - Rubriker som gör oss rädda - is available online (only in Swedish).

01:12 - THE GREATEST STORY OF OUR TIME - AND WE MISSED IT: 

Today I present a Demoskop survey in Dagens Nyheter. It shows that Swedes haven´t learned about the rapid environmental progress in Sweden and Europe since 1980. Big majorities think that all the eight indicators we ask about have worsened, when they have in fact all improved rapidly.

At 9.00 I launch the report at a press meeting at Timbro, where I explain why the media has contributed to this exaggerated pessimism.

18:44 - ENJOY THE SILENCE: 

You might have noticed that I don´t reply to email right now. I have far too many projects to finish before I leave for Australia and New Zeeland, and there is total chaos in my mail box, so that will have to wait. Sorry.

15:10 - DON´T MISS FRIHETSFORUM: 



In case you have no plans this weekend, and happen to be close to Stockholm: Go to Frihetsforum, 7-9 October. This Freedom Forum is a big and broad event with individualist, liberal, social liberal and libertarian groups and individuals who present, discuss and debate ideas on how to change the world.

I won´t be there since I will be in Australia then. So don´t miss this chance to go there and to tell me at next year´s forum that I am a looser because I missed the fantastic inaugural event of 2005.

23:02 - FREE RADICAL: 

I have received so many well-wishes and congratulations since I wrote that I am leaving Timbro that I haven´t found the time to respond yet. But let me just say: thanks. The fact that so many - from all corners of the world - care about my activities is really moving, and encourages me more than I can express in a few words.

Let me also assure those of you who are afraid that this will mean that I won´t be as active as before in the struggle for liberalism and capitalism that you are wrong. My plan is that this will make me more productive and more active in the future. This is what I want to spend my life fighting for. Yes, I am stubborn. I can´t help it. As Oliver Wendell Holmes once said:

11:12 - LABOUR MARKET MOBILITY: 

I just informed my colleagues at Timbro, the Swedish free-market think-thank, that I am leaving Timbro at the end of the year.

I have been here in different capacities for six years now. It is the best place on the planet to develop independent thoughts and ideas without having to be confined to what’s considered politically possible or useful for the moment. I can’t imagine a better place to grow as a person and as a thinker, and I am happy for all the young Swedish liberals who have the same experience ahead of them.

If the ideas of liberalism and capitalism are to be influential, we need more places and institutions like Timbro.

The fact that I am leaving is a proof of how successful this think-tank has been. My work and my six books for Timbro have established me in the debate, and the last one is a global bestseller – soon published in 20 different countries. This makes it possible for me to become a free-lance liberal, devoting all my time and energy to writing books, articles, reports and lectures for different people and organisations. Yes, I am now open to suggestions.

Personally I want to move more from day-to-day politics to ideas for the long-term, and from a Swedish to a more global perspective and audience. With only one year left to the next general election in Sweden, and everybody’s minds fixed upon this, it is more natural for me to do it as an independent.

But most of all, I take this step because I want to spend my days in cafés, with a laptop, my iPod, a copy of the Economist and all those books that I never find the time to read.

20:22 - A RESPONSE: 

In Svenska Dagbladet today two representatives from Attac Sweden reply (pdf) to Johan Forssel´s and my article about the problematic anti-poverty campaign. Apart from the fact that they have missed that I am in favour of debt cancellation, they say that nothing shows that democracy, free markets and free trade promotes development, and that this is why the campaign does not embrace it.

That´s what you would expect from them. But that´s not what I expect from center-right politicians like Lars Leijonborg, Göran Hägglund and Maud Olofsson who signed the platform with Attac and others. I really wonder what they think today when they read this outspoken and revealing defence of their common platform.

08:49 - WHO ARE THE WORLD´S LEADING PUBLIC INTELLECTUALS?: 

Prospect and Foreign Policy asks you to vote here. You decide wheter people like Bhagwati, De Soto, Lomborg and Vargas Llosa make the list, or names like Chomsky, Hobsbawm, Klein and Negri.

08:40 - ANOTHER RELEVANT EASTERLY QUOTE: 

17:35 - DEVELOPMENT QUOTES OF THE DAY: 

17:11 - VAD VAR DET JAG SADE?: