Sweden’s official GDP numbers land about two months after the quarter ends. On 28 August, Statistics Sweden reported that the economy grew 1.6 percent in Q2 from the previous quarter. That beat the 1.2 percent consensus and came in stronger than the flash estimate of 1.4 percent. Calendar-adjusted, GDP was 3.3 percent higher than a … Continue reading Sweden’s GDP Just Beat the Forecast. Don’t Turn It Into a Fairy Tale.

We’ve had the same insurance company for over ten years.Home insurance, car insurance, accident insurance – everything just rolled on year after year without us lifting a finger. The only policy with a different company is our son’s child insurance. We took that one out while I was pregnant. It has no exclusions. Every other … Continue reading One call. 8,235 SEK saved every year.

A few hours ago a magnitude 7.7 earthquake slammed the Flores region in Indonesia. Buildings damaged, power outages, hospital patients evacuated, people dead. The usual ugly checklist. Labuan Bajo – the gateway to Komodo – took hits. Hotels damaged, tourists scrambling, the whole fragile machine that keeps this place running suddenly looking very temporary. This … Continue reading My Parents Were Right. The Third Disaster Just Hit.

While central banks scramble to contain the macroeconomic fallout from the ongoing conflict choking the Strait of Hormuz, they may be missing a bizarre, deeply invasive side-effect. It is highly efficient. It is also pure dark satire. Geopolitical tension is driving up the cost of oil-dependent manufacturing and global shipping. The world’s largest condom maker, … Continue reading The West’s birth-rate collapse just found an unexpected ally: the free market, and a war in the Strait of Hormuz.

Europe’s latest heatwave and drought have dropped the Danube to critically low levels. In eastern Serbia, near the port town of Prahovo, that has done something the river does every dry summer – only this year it’s worse: it has dragged dozens of rusted German WWII ships back into the daylight. In September 1944 the … Continue reading When a European heatwave hands you a Nazi ghost fleet

Last month my 78-year-old mother got a call from her private banking advisor at SEB. He strongly recommended she activate their free security feature: “delay payment.” He made it sound completely harmless. My mother has always taken pride in paying every bill on time. She has never received a reminder fee or interest invoice in … Continue reading When “Free Security” Costs You Late Fees

A joke by Benjamin Franklin in 1784 — that Parisians should get up earlier to save candles — became reality in 1916. In the middle of World War I, Germany introduced daylight saving time nationwide. Coal was running short. By moving the clocks forward one hour, evenings stayed brighter and factories and homes needed less … Continue reading Daylight Saving Time Was Never About Us

All the fraud targeting elderly people has had a secondary effect: banks have made it much harder for ordinary older customers to do basic banking. My parents have never been in a stronger financial position. Two largely unsecured homes, a solid stock portfolio, and healthy cash reserves. They’re going to Japan in May. Yesterday they … Continue reading Protecting the Elderly Shouldn’t Mean Treating Them Like Children

The 2016 WEF essay by Ida Auken basically gifted the internet one of its best memes ever: “Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better.” As a proud Gen Xer and dividend investor, I’ve spent years roasting Millennials and Gen Z. I’ve called them entitled, historically illiterate, and … Continue reading You’ll Own Nothing and Be Happy – And Why This Grumpy Gen Xer Is Starting to Get the Rage