The GI's Alex Singleton writes in today's Financial Times under the headline Stiglitz is living in Nordic dreamland:

Sir, Joseph Stiglitz ("We have become rich countries of poor people", September 8) is clearly confused when he promotes the Scandinavian social model.

Sweden, the region's economic crown jewel, has been living beyond its means, needing to borrow money for most of the past 35 years. Unlike dynamic economies, Sweden is failing to create jobs: the incomes of the poorest 10 per cent of Swedes have grown six times more slowly than the poor in the UK and eight times more slowly than the poor in Ireland over the past decade.

Using internationally comparable figures, Sweden suffers from 10.3 per cent unemployment, higher than in France. We do much better in the UK by running an open economy where business can thrive.

Alex Singleton,
Director-General,
The Globalisation Institute,
London SW1

It is disappointing to read an ex-senior World Banker querying the remarkable opportunities that globalisation is offering to all countries that want to engage and participate.

With evidence of stronger, less volatile and more evenly shared global growth despite all the difficult challenges thrown up in the past five years, globalisation should be praised, not diminished.