MORE ON THE SWEDISH ECONOMY: I’m going to try to do a sum-up post later, but Megan McArdle says that Swedes are worse off than they’re pretending.

UPDATE: More from a Swedish reader:

Hi again, Glenn,

I mistakenly excluded missed one sentence in the translation of the article, which is why McArtle might have misunderstood. It goes as follows, and should
explain the “gem” that she included in her article:

“Average US income, not median this time around, in 1997 and distributed along income groups (adjusted to 1998-dollars) :

The 1% in the top: $869 000, The following 59%: $64 000, The remaining 40% $13 700.”

Then comes the conclusion (the “gem”) that I translated:

“Conclusion: 40% of the population earns just 1% of what the remaining 60% is earning! No wonder the median income is high. This is why, the author argues,
it’s not correct to say that the poorest segments in Sweden have lost out compared to their American counterparts.”

Sorry for that mishap.

Best regards