Sweden, 1918–2009: Too Good to Be True

Abstract

Sweden escaped neither the WWI in?ation nor the widespread depressions of the early 1920s and the 1930s, but the shaping of Sweden’s capital market between WWI and the mid-1990s was more directly in?uenced by the neutrality upheld in both world wars, and the more than 50 years of social-democratic rule following the end of WWII. Great wealth was created from trading with both sides of the con?icts in the late 18th century, and this happened again in the ?rst half of the 20th century. By 1920, the foreign debts accumulated since the 1870s had largely been repaid and remained insigni?cant until the mid-1970s.