Sweden votes today. As the nation heads to the polls, this Sweden election 2026 portfolio analysis looks at what a potential shift means for your money. I am not writing a voter guide. I am writing as someone who actually has to live with the tax code that comes out of the count. Left Party … Continue reading If the Left Gets the Keys: Sweden Election 2026 Portfolio Strategy
Politics & Society
When a militia takes an island, your Zoom call is suddenly on the map
A militia in Yemen now sits on Perim Island and Yemen’s western Red Sea coast. That is not a local story. It is a story about oil tankers, AI campuses in the desert, and the garden-hose cables that still carry most of the internet. The backup oil route just got a new landlord The Houthis … Continue reading When a militia takes an island, your Zoom call is suddenly on the map
Sweden Can Hide $100 Oil. America Can’t.
Brent closed at $101.21 on Wednesday, highest close in months. Tomorrow the United States publishes August CPI. That print will not fully capture a $100 barrel. August was cheaper. September may not be. Sweden still has a trick Washington does not. Energy and fuel excise taxes are national here. Cut them in Stockholm and every … Continue reading Sweden Can Hide $100 Oil. America Can’t.
When the Numbers Are Right and the Summary Still Lies
Sweden’s PISA 2025 scores landed today. They are ugly. Reading down 21 points, maths down 18, science down 8. A third of 15-year-olds miss the basic level in reading and maths. That part is not in dispute. I asked Gemini for the breakdown: students with a Swedish background, second-generation immigrants, and students born abroad. It … Continue reading When the Numbers Are Right and the Summary Still Lies
Sweden didn’t beat inflation. It taxed it down.
Sweden did not beat inflation with a policy rate. It beat the print with a tax cut. This morning’s Flash CPI for August was another miss. Headline CPI at 0.3% year-on-year, up a tenth from July. CPIF stuck at 0.7%. Markets wanted roughly 0.6% and 0.9%. Both measures fell 0.3% on the month. Detailed numbers … Continue reading Sweden didn’t beat inflation. It taxed it down.
Eight More Names, Same Pattern: The Left Party Still Has a Problem It Won’t Own
This Sunday Sweden votes. Over the weekend the Left Party quietly dropped another eight names from its candidate lists. Expressen reports they had praised Putin and Hamas and spread antisemitic conspiracy theories – including the claim that Jews sacrifice the children of the white race. Ekot at Sveriges Radio now puts the total at 25 … Continue reading Eight More Names, Same Pattern: The Left Party Still Has a Problem It Won’t Own
The Chatbot Did the “But He Started It” Move. I Recognized It Instantly.
I was not looking for a worldview. I was looking for a straight answer. I asked an AI why models like Gemini so often sand down ugly asymmetries in news coverage. Why the right gets the hard verbs and the left gets “context.” Why a pattern in the reporting is treated like a mood I … Continue reading The Chatbot Did the “But He Started It” Move. I Recognized It Instantly.
Lipstick on a Hospital
The King of Sweden has no idea what Sweden actually looks like. That is not his fault. Years ago I worked at a construction company that held framework agreements for work in several Stockholm hospitals. The client was Locum, the Region Stockholm company that manages the region’s healthcare buildings. The agreement let them call us … Continue reading Lipstick on a Hospital
The earthquake that was supposed to make the coffee expensive
A 7.4 earthquake hit western Colombia on 10 August. The epicenter was in Chocó, near San José del Palmar. The Coffee Axis — Pereira, Manizales, Armenia — shook hard enough that the first headlines wrote themselves: dead people, broken roads, and a price spike in the one grocery item Swedes treat as a human right. … Continue reading The earthquake that was supposed to make the coffee expensive
Four months is not a generation
In May I wrote that America’s War on Poverty may have helped create a permanent underclass — not because the intentions were evil, but because transfers replaced market income and left too many people dependent on the state instead of work. The post kept getting visits. Nobody left a sermon in the comments. Fair enough. … Continue reading Four months is not a generation