ANOTHER GREAT VICTORY FOR THE PROGRESSIVE FORCES OF SWEDEN – AT 9:46 A.M. ET:  Some years ago I was having lunch in New York with my Swedish publisher, who told me that Sweden was a country where half the population supported the other half.  I'm afraid that's turned out to be true.

I must admit that I find Sweden annoying.  I'm sure the Swedes are fine people, and they've given us some good, well-designed products, but their government types waltz around the world lecturing everyone on how they should lead their lives.  There are special messages for the inferior Americans.  At the same time, Sweden is falling apart.  In its third largest city of Malmo, firefighters can't answer a fire call in some sections without a police escort because the "immigrant" population (polite term) attacks the firemen. 

And some famous Swedish names, that came to define the nation in past decades, aren't even Swedish any longer.  Volvo is now owned by the Chinese.  That may bring comfort to Swedish leftists, but the rest of the country can't be pleased that perhaps its most prestigious marquee name couldn't make it in Sweden.

And now this, from AP:

STOCKHOLM – Saab's owner said Thursday it doesn't have the money to pay employees' wages, deepening the financial crisis that is pushing the struggling Swedish brand ever closer to ruin.

Dutch owner Swedish Automobile, previously known as Spyker Cars, has courted Chinese and Russian investors and put the Saab factory up for sale in its attempts to revive the brand it took over from General Motors Co. last year.

But after months of production stoppages and problems with paying suppliers, Saab said the situation is so dire that it won't be able to pay its 3,700 employees, adding to doubts over how long the brand can survive.

"I do not see a future for the car maker in the current position," said Ferdinand Dudenhoeffer, an auto analyst at the University of Duisburg-Essen.

Analysts have sounded the death knell for Saab several times since Spyker, a small luxury sports car maker, bought it from GM last year for $74 million in cash plus $326 million worth of preferred shares. Skeptics questioned how Spyker and its smooth-talking CEO Victor Muller could turn around a car maker that posted loss after loss during GM's ownership.

But every time the company appeared to be on the edge of bankruptcy, Muller came up with a new lifeline. His latest move was lining up two Chinese investors — Zhejiang Youngman Lotus Automobile Co. and Pang Da Automobile Trade Co. — in a deal to make and distribute Saab in China. The deal has not yet been approved by Chinese authorities.

Well, as Bogie might have said to Bergman, "we'll always have IKEA."  But I recall when Sweden was looked to for innovation, especially in automotive design.  I guess the country will have to settle for assemble-it-yourself bookcases.  This decline is usually the path these socialist systems take.

No more lectures to us, okay Swedish government?

June 23, 2011