ABSTRACT
Sweden is a small country, and the circles of politicians and political wannabes are even smaller. Speculation about the future of the new EU constitution spilled over into Sweden, putting the Swedish central bank under heavy pressure from global currency speculators. Sweden's large manufacturing corporations, traditionally important to the economy, could suddenly cut their prices on foreign markets. Having governed Sweden uninterruptedly for 44 years, from 1932 to 1976, the social democrats earned a global reputation for creating a welfare state like no other. It redistributed income and resources between citizens on a scale not seen west of the Berlin Wall, supposedly without doing the same harm to the private sector that a full-blown communist system does. Sweden was confronted with some of the characteristics of industrial poverty. However, it managed to fend off the inevitable, permanent crisis that comes with industrial poverty.
