Fausta's Blog

American and Latin American Politics, Society, and Culture

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Saturday essay: The Swedish model again, and why it won’t work in Latin America

No, not this Swedish model,
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the socialist economic model, instead.

Socialists sooner or later bring up the exemplary Nordic economies when one talks about the failures of Communism; in my case, when I post on Latin America.

For instance, just this week,

That person assumes I have ignored Scandinavia. I don’t know about “the right” in general, but after hearing for decades how the Scandinavian models would work, today I’ll look at three factors:

  • Taxes and spending
  • Work ethic
  • Rule of law

Each of those factors explain why a Scandinavian economic model can’t work in Latin America.

Taxes and spending:
[Read more…]

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Ecuador: Assange granted political asylum

Julian Assange ‘welcome to stay in Ecuador embassy’

Ecuador has guaranteed political asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for “as long as necessary,” one day after he lost an appeal against a Swedish warrant for his arrest.

Ecuador Ratifies Julian Assange Asylum Status, Offers Sweden Access To WikiLeaks Founder

Ecuador ratified Friday its diplomatic asylum status for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who has been living in the country’s London embassy since June 2012 to avoid being extradited to Sweden, where he faces sexual assault charges. The move makes official Assange’s protected status and means he can remain under the country’s protection indefinitely.

I do not know for certain what, if any, charges Assange would face in the USA at this point.



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The Swedish model

No, not this one,

not this one, either,

pic01-6

this one: The Swedish model for economic recovery (emphasis added)

After its crisis, Sweden reduced public expenditures by 20 percent of its gross domestic product, slashing social transfers such as unemployment benefits and sick-leave compensation. It cut its public debt in half (its debt, as a proportion of the economy, is now about half that of the United States). It cut marginal tax rates and simplified its tax code so much that nearly two-thirds of Swedes simply confirm by phone that the declaration automatically prepared for them by the tax authorities is correct. The banking system was thoroughly reformed and emerged unscathed from the global financial crises.

Structural reforms were also adopted. Successive governments deregulated one market after another and privatized as market conditions permitted. All children receive vouchers so their parents can choose private or public schools at public expense. Swedish social security became a true insurance system, rather than a pay-as-you-go one with huge unfunded liabilities as in the United States.

Sweden remains a social welfare society, and government spending still accounts for half of its economy; it finances all education and health care, as is common throughout Europe. Sweden did not dismantle the social system but, in addition to drastically reducing its costs, adopted macroeconomic and structural reforms to make it sustainable and greatly enhanced its efficiency by privatizing the delivery of many educational and medical services. The country’s guiding principle is that a successful social welfare society must be fiscally conservative and administratively efficient. This is the central Swedish lesson for the crisis countries of the euro zone and elsewhere.

Economic policies based on competition and openness, carried on a free-market economy and a high degree of government efficiency.

A model for our hemisphere.

And yes, a little Rule 5 for all is always good for catching your attention to the subject of economics, isn’t it?
Fausta’s blog: an equal-opportunity rule fiver!


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Suicide terrorist attack in Sweden, over Mo cartoons? VIDEO

Stockholm Hit by Blasts After E-Mail Warning

One man was killed and two other people were injured when two explosions hit the heart of Stockholm’s city-center shopping district on Saturday evening, the police in the Swedish capital said. The country’s foreign minister called the blasts a terrorist attack, and an e-mail to news organizations minutes before the blasts seemed to link them to anger over anti-Islamic cartoons and the war in Afghanistan.

The police said that a car parked near the busy shopping street of Drottninggatan exploded first, shortly before 5 p.m. Stockholm time, and that the wreckage of the vehicle included gas canisters. A second blast followed minutes later, and about 200 yards from the first. A man’s body, with blast injuries to his abdomen, was discovered after the second explosion.

Swedish newspapers portrayed the dead man as a suicide bomber, and the newspaper Aftonbladet said on its Web site that he had been carrying pipe bombs and a backpack full of nails. But the police declined to confirm this.

The now-dead terrorist’s message?

The recorded message sent to Swedish news organizations demanded that Muslims in Sweden “stop sucking up and degrading yourselves,” and broadened the appeal to “all mujahedeen,” or holy warriors, in Europe. “Now it’s time to attack,” it said. “Do not wait any longer. Come forth with whatever you have, even if it is a knife, and I know that you can bring more than knives. Fear no one. Do not be afraid of jail. Do not fear death.”

Gates of Vienna is covering the story in detail, with video,

and posts,
Six Pipe Bombs — How Many Exploded?
Confirmation From the Local
Gas Canisters for the Bystanders, Pipe Bombs for the Perp
Who Was the Stockholm Bomber?

Full report from Sweden at Big Peace,

About 10 minutes before the explosions an e-mail was sent to TT [news service], and also to the Swedish secret services (Säpo), where a man addresses “Sweden and the Swedish people”. He refers to the Swedish silence concerning Lars Vilks’ paintings, the Swedish soldiers in Afghanistan and says that “now your children, daughters and sisters will die as our brothers and sisters and children are dying”.

“Our actions will speak for themselves. As long as you continue to wage your war against Islam and insulting the prophet and your stupid support of the pig Vilks,” says the man.

Whereupon he encourages all Muslims in Sweden to “stop sucking up and debasing yourselves”. He ends the message with another exhortation to “all the mujahideen in Europe and Sweden”:

“Now is the time to attack, do not wait any longer. Come forward with whatever you have, even if it’s just a knife and I know you have more than just knives. Do not fear anyone, do not fear jail, do not fear death.”

It is not clear from the audio files if the man speaking belongs to any organization. But he states that he has been in the Middle East and asks his family to forgive him for having lied to them.“I never went to the Middle East to work or make money, I went there for jihad,” he says.

Säpo has not confirmed the contents to TT or confirmed having received the mail, which contains sound files where both Swedish and Arabic are spoken. TT has not been able to confirm that the mail is related to the explosion.

The car was registered to an “Abdul T”.

A witness who tried to give the man CPR says he removed the man’s Palestinian scarf while doing so. The man apparently had a whole bag of explosives

Vlad Tepes has more.

For prior posts on the Mohammed Cartoons, click here

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Will Wikileaks’ Assange end up in Ecuador?


The Swedes are investigating him, and the Australians are “studying whether he’d broken any laws there”, so here comes Rafael Correa to the rescue,
Ecuador offers a home for founder of WikiLeaks

Deputy Foreign Minister Kintto Lucas said in audio posted online by the EcuadorInmediato news site that “we are open to giving him residence in Ecuador, without any kind of trouble and without any kind of conditions.”

“We think it would be important not only to converse with him but to listen to him,” Lucas added, saying Ecuador wanted to invite Assange to “freely expound” and see what it’s like in “friendly countries.”

He praised people like Assange “who are constantly investigating and trying to get light out of the dark corners of (state) information”

Lucas said Ecuador’s government was “very concerned” by revelations that U.S. diplomats have been involved in spying in the first of the more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables and directives that WikiLeaks has begun to release.

Assange was interviewed by Forbes and talked about “his profile”

You mean as your personal profile rises?

Yeah, the rising profile of the organization and my rising profile also. And there’s a network effect for anything to do with trust. Once something starts going around and being considered trustworthy in a particular arena, and you meet someone and they say “I heard this is trustworthy,” then all of a sudden it reconfirms your suspicion that the thing is trustworthy.

So that’s why brand is so important, just as it is with anything you have to trust.

Assange’s profile’s ought to be prosecuted. Today’s WSJ,

What WikiLeaks has done is use the betrayal by the original leaker to expose American secrets and thus destroy trust in America’s reliability. For an administration whose policy choices have already done so much to erode global confidence in the U.S., these leaks are a disaster. How should the administration go about regaining confidence? It’s astonishing that Iceland, a member of NATO, is where WikiLeaks is headquartered. Don’t we have an embassy there? It’s astonishing that the Australian government has yet to receive a request from the U.S. to take action against Mr. Assange, an Australian national. It’s astonishing that Pfc. Bradley Manning, the suspected leaker, has yet to be court-martialed. It’s astonishing that Mr. Assange should be described by National Public Radio as a “whistleblower,” while in fact he’s conducting a form of cyberwarfare against the United States.

Assange promises more megaleaks to come regarding the private sector because

there will be some flagrant violations, unethical practices that will be revealed, but it will also be all the supporting decision-making structures and the internal executive ethos that cames out, and that’s tremendously valuable. Like the Iraq War Logs, yes there were mass casualty incidents that were very newsworthy, but the great value is seeing the full spectrum of the war.

You could call it the ecosystem of corruption. But it’s also all the regular decision making that turns a blind eye to and supports unethical practices: the oversight that’s not done, the priorities of executives, how they think they’re fulfilling their own self-interest. The way they talk about it.

Assange says he’s got stuff on Russia, too, even when he claims,

It’s not right to say there’s going to be a particular focus on Russia.

One can easily conclude that Assange is an optimist if he believes that the Russians are going to take anything sitting down, and that he’ll be enjoying a nice comfortable existence under the aegis of Rafael Correa.

Cross-posted at The Green Room

UPDATE
Ed’s got more on how the Russians may approach Wikileaks.

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WikiLeaks’ Assange accused of rape in Sweden UPDATE: No longer wanted for rape

UPDATE 3
4:30PM Eastern,
Barcepundit posts that

NBC says the molestation charges remain, though:

“I don’t think there is reason to suspect that he has committed rape,” chief prosecutor Eva Finne said, in announcing the withdrawal of the warrant. She did not address the status of the molestation case, a less serious charge that would not lead to an arrest warrant.

But Karin Rosander, a spokeswoman for the Swedish Prosecution Authority, told NBC News that the allegation of molestation remains. However, Rosander said that after a new prosecutor looked at the allegations, the arrest warrant was withdrawn because the severity of the case does not require an arrest at this stage.

More at Sweden’s TheLocal.

UPDATE 2:
This just in,
WikiLeaks Founder No Longer Wanted for Rape

Here’s the WSJ report in its entirety:

Swedish police said Saturday that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was “no longer wanted” for rape, reversing its position just hours after saying his arrest was being sought.

In an update on the Web site of the Swedish Prosecution Authority, the agency said that “chief prosector Eva Finné has come to the decision that Julian Assange is not suspected of rape.”

Mr. Assange said in a posting on the WikiLeaks Twitter account in response to the initial allegation by police: “The charges are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing.”
Related

WikiLeaks last month published 76,000 classified U.S. military documents about the war in Afghanistan. Mr. Assange, an Australian, has been in Sweden in recent days, where WikiLeaks has some infrastructure.

The Pentagon has sharply criticized Mr. Assange for publishing the documents, saying it could put the lives of solidiers and Afghan civilians at risk. Mr. Assange has said he planned to publish up to 15,000 more documents about the war soon. He defends the publications, saying greater transparency is needed about civilian casualties, U.S. military tactics and other issues.

In a statement posted on the WikiLeaks site, the organization said:”On Saturday 21st of August, we have been made aware of rape allegations made against Julian Assange, founder of this project and one of our spokespeople. We are deeply concerned about the seriousness of these allegations. We the people behind WikiLeaks think highly of Julian and and he has our full support. While Julian is focusing on his defenses and clearing his name, WikiLeaks will be continuing its regular operations.”

In an earlier Twitter posting, WikiLeaks said it had been warned to expect “dirty tricks.”

———————————————
Earlier today,

An interesting turn – the man with blood on his hands is now being investigated for rape:
WikiLeaks Founder Accused of Rape in Sweden

The founder of WikiLeaks was accused of rape in a Swedish arrest warrant Saturday that turned the spotlight onto the former hacker who has infuriated governments with his self-proclaimed mission to make secrets public.

The accusation was labeled a dirty trick by Julian Assange and his group, who are preparing to release a fresh batch of classified U.S. documents from the Afghan war.

Swedish prosecutors urged Mr. Assange—a 39-year-old Australian whose whereabouts were unclear—to turn himself in to police to face questioning in one case involving suspicions of rape and another based on an accusation of molestation.

They issued a warrant for his arrest, a move that doesn’t necessarily mean that criminal charges will be filed. Investigators want him in custody because they believe there is a risk he will obstruct the probe by destroying evidence, said Karin Rosander, a spokeswoman for the Swedish Prosecution Authority.

“The next step is that we interrogate him,” she said. “Then we’ll see what happens.”

Mr. Assange has no permanent address and travels frequently—jumping from one friend’s place to the next. He disappears from public view for months at a time, only to reappear in the full glare of the cameras at packed news conferences to discuss his site’s latest disclosure.

He was in Sweden last week seeking legal protection for the whistleblower website, which angered the Obama administration for publishing thousands of leaked documents about U.S. military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Why Sweden?

Mr. Assange was in Sweden last week partly to apply for a publishing certificate to make sure the website, which has servers in Sweden, can take full advantage of Swedish laws protecting whistleblowers.

CNN says Assange is wanted in Sweden after accusations of rape and molestation.

Blogger reaction:
Dan Riehl:

given the little that’s being reported, I can’t help but agree with him that the charges are disturbing. Welcome to the intelligence big leagues, Assange. I suspect you’re about to get knocked out of the park. Be very afraid. I suspect that, more than anything, is what the charges are meant to convey. That, and to provide grounds for your arrest

James Joyner:

In all seriousness, while I view Assange as substantially lower than pond scum, this story is incredibly murky.  While I’m happy to see him discredited and silenced, bogus rape charges are beyond the pale.  One trusts that there’s substantive probable cause he for issuing the warrant.

Sister Toldjah:

Wonder how the anti-war left will treat the news about one of their WikiLeaks heroes? Will they treat him like they do the troops and assume guilt before innocence, or will they rush to his defense and assert that this is a smear campaign designed to take down a snake who cares nothing about the fate of the hundreds, possibly thousands of Afghan and American lives he put in even more danger with the publishing of the WikiLeaks information?

Another question: Will the Hollywood left embrace Assange like they did child molestor Roman Polanski? Will Whoopi assert that what Assange allegedly did was not really “rape-rape“?

As Drudge says, “developing.”

UPDATE
The Telegraph has more on the complaint,

The complaints are said to have come from two Swedish women aged between 20 and 30, and relate to alleged incidents that occurred in a Stockholm apartment and in the city of Enköping outisde Stockholm. Neither police nor the newspaper have named the complainants.

Much more to come?

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The Lars Vilks attack UPDATE: His home was attacked, too

Michael Moynihan had posted on Tuesday the video of the attack on Swedish artist Lars Vilks during his presentation at Uppsala University:


Allhapundit posted on Wednesday that Swedish artist Lars Vilks had been disinvited, following the incident:
Cartoonist Lars Vilks attacked for showing Prophet Mohammed in gay film
Lars Vilks, the Swedish cartoon artist allegedly targeted by ‘Jihad Jane’ for portraying the Prophet Mohammed as a dog, was attacked Tuesday when he showed an Iranian film that depicts the Prophet in a gay bar. Are radical Muslims succeeding in muzzling free speech?
The answer to that question is a resounding yes. Allahpundit:

If you think this couldn’t happen at an American university, bad news: It already has. In fact, I’ve seen examples of it with my own two eyes. The punchline? As usual, appeasement only encourages further aggression by lowering the threshold for what constitutes actionable offense. Read this Paul Ibrahim piece at Pajamas contrasting western groveling to jihadis with the insults routinely thrown at Mohammed by an Arabic evangelical TV network. Ibrahim draws the lesson that if you act like a dhimmi, you’ll be treated like one. I think it’s more complicated than that — Arab atrocities against Arabs have always been vastly more tolerated in the Middle East than, say, western atrocities against Arabs — but good luck explaining how and why bowing to every threat of violence is making western media safer.

Oh — Vilks’s website was hacked this morning, too. Just another way to shut him up. Exit quotation from the man himself: “What you get [when you appease] is a mob deciding what can be discussed at the university… I’m ready to go up again. This must be carried through. You cannot allow it to be stopped.”

Today Allahpundit, American Power, and Ace (who has a brilliant headline: Plans Announced To Erect Islamic Culture Center On Lars Vilks’ Decapitated Body) have the video of the aftermath of the attack on Vilks:

One courageous woman confronted the mob by stating “this is not freedom of expression”.

Gates of Vienna examines the implications of some of the words shouted by Muslims in this video. Here is #2 (GoV lists 4):

2. If he had stopped the film, this couldn’t have happened.
In other words, if Mr. Vilks had moderated his actions to take into account the sentiments of Sweden’s Muslim community, nobody would have tried to kill him. From the enrichers’ standpoint, this makes perfect moral sense: the artist is required to alter his behavior to accord with norms that have nothing to do with Swedish tradition. Freedom of artistic expression is an atavistic cultural artifact that is not included in this particular postmodern schema.

According to the norms of Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, etc., the artist has the responsibility not to offend his audience with blasphemous “pornography”. If he neglects his responsibility, then his just punishment may include injury or death at the hands of those whom he has offended.

Immigrants in Sweden have learned that this is their right: their religion is to be respected at all times and by everyone. When an irresistible multicultural force meets an immovable free-speech object, guess which one has to yield? The culture-enrichers have long since learned that free speech is what almost always gives way. Lars Vilks was unable to finish his seminar, and the University of Uppsala is reluctant to reschedule it, due to “security issues”. Mr. Vilks is unlikely to find another venue unless he pays for it out of pocket, so the enrichers are right: their religion — and more importantly, their eagerness to resort to violence whenever they are insulted — trumps long-cherished Swedish freedoms.

Vilks continues to be a marked man. Notice how CNN demurred from showing his work, and they allow a woman to issue direct death threats without even showing her face:

The Poet Versus the Prophet
On standing up to totalitarian Islam

Since 2001, many Americans have asked how they can contribute in a direct way to the war against totalitarian Islam. Now we have an answer. If it’s legal, and likely to offend the radicals, just do it. That seems straightforward enough. But how many of us will have the nerve to stand up to a million or so Muslim dirtbags, and to scores of millions, perhaps hundreds of millions, of their fellow travelers and psychic enablers, and say in unison, “You want to kill the Enlightenment, you’re going to have to come through me.”

Visit Vlad Tepes’s YouTube channel for more Counterjihad Films.

UPDATE
Via Memeorandum:
Home of Swedish Muhammad cartoonist attacked

The home of a Swedish artist who once drew a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammad as a dog has been hit by a suspected arson attack, police said Saturday.

Lars Vilks, who lives in Nyhamnslage in southern Sweden, was not at home during the attack late Friday night and no one was reported injured.

It was the latest in a week of attacks on the 53-year-old cartoonist, who was assaulted Tuesday by a man while he lectured at a university and saw his Web site apparently attacked by hacker on Wednesday.

Police were alerted just before noon Saturday, as people passing by the artist’s house noted that several windows had been smashed. When officers arrived, they discovered plastic bottles filled with gasoline and fire damage on the surface of the building. Attackers are also suspected of having tried setting the inside of house on fire, but the flames are thought to have fizzled out.

Police have no suspects in the case, police Spokeswoman Sofie Osterheim said.

No suspects?

How about starting with the people who attacked him at the University?

2d update
A remark from Moe Lane,

Let me tell you what worries me about Europe. What worries me about Europe is not they’re going to collapse into some sort of prostrate client state of radical Islamist fanaticism. No, what worries me is that the Europeans have precisely two tools in their political toolbox: technocratic social democracy, and authoritarianism. Technocratic social democracy is rapidly demonstrating that it has absolutely no idea how to handle this kind of aggressive, violent religious fanaticism. Authoritarians… do. It will be the wrong answer, ethically speaking, but since when did that ever stop an authoritarian regime?

Particularly when cloaked in a socialist disguise…

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