This book is the final report from a major project around the Swedish medical industry. Sweden has long held a world leading position in developing new pharmaceuticals as well as new medical technology. The pacemaker and the titan implants are two of many examples. But the environment for innovation and tests have weakened. The book reveals why and provides plans for action. They pertain not least to reforms to once again place Swedish health care at the forefront of research and innovation.
The government is expected to lead the country, focusing on the main strategic aspects for future success. This book, with original research, analyses how well the Swedish government is functioning for this crucial task. It shows major deficiencies in the ability to intelligently handle qualified reports and inputs from agencies and research, its “reception capacity”. Political logic and paradigms are, though, even more important in taking focus away from the vital conditions for innovation and growth.
From an anthology honoring legendary television journalist Åke Ortmark comes this text, where Hans Bergström argues that Swedish journalism on the whole promotes the perspective of the left, even when the governing power is socialist. The public sector is seen as “good”, companies as bad. People are “victims”, not individuals with their own responsibility. Paradigms like these are so dominant in editorial staff rooms that they are taken for granted, as the “normal” way of looking at the world. They cannot be reasonably explained by anything other than the political views of the journalists themselves.
A research anthology, named "Devaluation 1982", was published in 1991, shortly before an election raising the possibility of yet another devaluation of the Swedish krona. Hans Bergström contributed with an analysis of the “Big Bang”-decision from the new Social Democrat government in 1982 to devaluate the krona with 16 percent. He discusses currency changes as a political instrument. The essay concluded that yet another devaluation was less likely, but that a change of the total currency arrangement could happen. After the European currency crisis of 1992, Sweden finally let go of the long established policy of a fixed exchange rate.
