Current Events > Sweden's PM resigned today.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Last Monday he lost a Vote of no confidence called for by the Far-Left since his government was working on a proposal of market rental. The Nationalists, the Conservatives and the Christian Democrats joined in and thus a majority was against him. The Conservatives and the ChristDems support more sweeping market rental than the proposition being worked on so they voted against Lfven in a bid to gain power.

Lfven had until today to choose whether to resign or to call an extra election.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/swedish-pm-lofven-resigns-speaker-seek-new-government-2021-06-28/

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For those not in the know, this video provides a decent summary of what the fuss is about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS0deTJ0kX0

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Cool

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Story

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Bro

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tell

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Crawling

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in

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my

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Skin
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somebody

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https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/242/631/382.gif

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I get the feeling that S are trying to pin this on V as much as they can, which in my eyes is a poor strategy. That will tell voters that they're more allies to C than to renters, and I can't imagine they'll win many votes that way. I just can't help but feel that S's leadership's disconnect is far too big to survive.

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shockthemonkey posted...

Can you explain market rental and the debate around it a bit? I always like these topics and your explanations, its nice that you do this.

The tl;dr is that our rents are super cheap because of government intervention, but as a consequence queues to actually get said apartments are very long. For bad apartments the lines are a year long, for the best apartments you often have to queue for a decade.

But again, very cheap, even with the taxes.

The debate is whether or not to let landlords negotiate prices directly with renters and make it faster for people to find an apartment. The worry is that rent prices are going to skyrocket as a result.

Rimmer_Dall posted...

The tl;dr is that our rents are super cheap because of government intervention, but as a consequence queues to actually get said apartments are very long. For bad apartments the lines are a year long, for the best apartments you often have to queue for a decade.

But again, very cheap, even with the taxes.

The debate is whether or not to let landlords set the prices and make it faster for people to find an apartment. The worry is that rent prices are going to skyrocket as a result.

This... isn't very accurate. Rents aren't super cheap right now - especially not in the big cities. They're already expensive as heck. The queues aren't long because rents are low, they're long because we're not building a lot of rental apts. Over the last 20 years, Stockholm actually lost more rentals than were built, due to reforming old rentals as buyable apts. Thirdly, the "government intervention" in this case means that rents need to be negotiated collectively with renters, rather than individually.

There is no one who seriously believes that letting landlords dictate the rents (i.e., blocking renters' rights to organize and negotiate collectively) will make the queues shorter. It's well known that rent prices are going to skyrocket. That's what the bill is about, allowing landlords to set arbitrarily high rents outside of the current system. We've also seen what happened when Finland did these exact reforms: rents skyrocketed, and now they spend tons more money in subsidies so people can afford to pay rent. Effectively, it's just a cash transaction from the state to the landlords, for no benefit.

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shockthemonkey posted...

Thanks for that additional info!

They pretty much summed up the debate and the different viewpoints. I guess we dont have a hardcore pro-market rental advocate here but they would argue that market rental WILL help solve the lack of housing and it is only very attractive areas which will see a price increase.

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BalanceLost posted...

I guess we dont have a hardcore pro-market rental advocate here but they would argue that market rental WILL help solve the lack of housing

affordable housing is good.
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BalanceLost posted...

They pretty much summed up the debate and the different viewpoints. I guess we dont have a hardcore pro-market rental advocate here but they would argue that market rental WILL help solve the lack of housing and it is only very attractive areas which will see a price increase.

A fun fact about this is that there's no majority among any party's voters for this kind of reform. It's entirely driven by lobbyists. And a significant majority of C voters would have preferred a collaboration with V over what we have now. People are getting pissed off and soon we'll see which party makes the most out of that.

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Speaker Norln has had meetings with the leaders of all 8 major parties today. Conservative leader Ulf Kristersson has now been given the 1st attempt to form a new Government. He has until Friday, then there will be a vote in Riksdagen. Kristersson got the assignment since he is the leader of the largest party which voted to remove Lfven.

kingdrake2 posted...

affordable housing is good.

I agree 100%. People with low paying but important jobs for example need to be able to live decently.

scar the 1 posted...

A fun fact about this is that there's no majority among any party's voters for this kind of reform. It's entirely driven by lobbyists. And a significant majority of C voters would have preferred a collaboration with V over what we have now. People are getting pissed off and soon we'll see which party makes the most out of that.

That is most true. In polling released today V and SD seem to be the winners short term at least.

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scar the 1 posted...

The queues aren't long because rents are low, they're long because we're not building a lot of rental apts.

It's well known, in 'Murrica! at least, that rent controls cause severe shortages in housing supply.


What happens, is that the market instantly splits into a rapidly increasing number of luxury units and a dwindling number of controlled units, without a whole hell of a lot in the middle. Meanwhile, anyone who gets into a rent-controlled unit never leaves, long after the usefulness of even living there has evaporated.

Thompson posted...

For those not in the know, this video provides a decent summary of what the fuss is about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cS0deTJ0kX0

So the far right and far left parties support rent control? Lol very different than our far right?

Is sweden far right just leftists but racists? Haha

imagine a politician resigning instead of fighting and lying till the end def no america

Questionmarktarius posted...

It's well known, in 'Murrica! at least, that rent controls cause severe shortages in housing supply.

Great now do data from Sweden instead

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CADE FOSTER posted...

imagine a politician resigning instead of fighting and lying till the end def no america

You gotta have a sex scandal first. General incompetence just isn't good enough to get a resignation.

scar the 1 posted...

A fun fact about this is that there's no majority among any party's voters for this kind of reform. It's entirely driven by lobbyists. And a significant majority of C voters would have preferred a collaboration with V over what we have now. People are getting pissed off and soon we'll see which party makes the most out of that.

Huh, i always thought lobbyists getting that much influence were mostly an American thing

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Quick question: why wouldn't rising rent prices incentivize private housing development? Are there some special roadblocks to housing development in Sweden? Wouldn't an alternative just be to subsidize housing development?

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Jabodie posted...

Are there some special roadblocks to housing development in Sweden?

The same things that limit housing development anywhere else, presumably: a tangled web of NIMBYs, politicians, bureaucrats, and activists who all need to be appeased in various ways

Grey market. Still better than the dump I live in (and am moving out of).

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European cities often have local culture or rules that can essentially be summed up as "new buildings aren't allowed to be an eyesore". The fact that many buildings are hundreds of years old makes locals want to preserve the classical scenery and architecture. When people suggest building skyscrapers those plans often get scrapped due to locals protesting. As a result, cities tend to go wide instead of tall.

Developers are fairly open about the fact that they don't build to solve a housing crisis, they build to make a profit for their investors. It's quite common that they buy land and sit on it until it's profitable enough to build something. Especially if they're big, they can afford to do that for a long time.
ROBANN_88 posted...

Huh, i always thought lobbyists getting that much influence were mostly an American thing

You'd be surprised! Svenskt nringsliv spend a ton of money on lobbying, and it pays off.

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It is revealing that some posters say the rent control causes the housing shortage instead of saying that investors being able to hold onto property is the cause of the housing shortage. How about taxing huge masses of land at a higher rate?

Chicago has large plots of land close to the downtown area that are fallow. Some have been there since the Chicago fire some are old factories, some are arguably wetlands and some are railroad tracks. My claim is that someone who owns 1000 lots should be taxed at a different rate from someone who owns 1.

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CobraGT posted...

My claim is that someone who owns 1000 lots should be taxed at a different rate from someone who owns 1.

Congratulations, you've destroyed every farm ever.

Questionmarktarius posted...

Congratulations, you've destroyed every farm ever.

You are being clever instead of contributing.


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CruelBuffalo posted...

So the far right and far left parties support rent control? Lol very different than our far right?

Is sweden far right just leftists but racists? Haha

Their dream is an ethnostate where the native straight folk live very comfortable lives with good healthcare, housing, unemployment pay and so forth. Wanna do an abortion though? Better think that through. Youre in a same-sex relationship and want marriage and children? Nope. Youre a woman and want to work? Well tax you so you cannot afford to while giving you housewife payments.

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No one in this topic has offered any proof that Sweden actually exists, so I'm pretty sure this is just a conspiracy.,

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At least they chose the F-35

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very interesting...

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Breaking news: Ulf Kristersson, Conservative party leader, hands back the assignment to the Speaker. The math is against him so he wont take it to a vote in Riksdagen.

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CobraGT posted...

You are being clever instead of contributing.

In his world, farm land and residential land cannot possibly be distinguished from each other for tax purposes.

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