Equality seems to have eluded central banks even in gender conscious Scandinavia.

A Scandinavian level of taxes would be bearable if public services did not remain inferior to those offered in Scandinavia.

Not even pacific Scandinavia is exempt from this.

The Scandinavian countries showed the way two decades ago.

But the Scandinavian countries have shown that there is another way. Of course, government, like the private sector, must strive for efficiency.

This is the genius of social democracy, the philosophy pioneered in Scandinavia, but also deployed in many developing countries, such as Costa Rica.

The three Baltic states will most likely cooperate much more closely with the Scandinavian countries than with the other new members.

As the past decade shows, they have served the Scandinavian countries well during a period of extreme internationalization.

With average yearly GDP growth of 2.2 from 1995 to 2005 it fell short of the non Scandinavian countries of the EU 15, which grew by 2.8 on average.

In the 1980 s, Scandinavian countries stood for chronic budget deficits, high inflation, and repeated devaluations.

When Chinese seek a benchmark model for social protection, they go on study trips to Scandinavia.

While we have some successful precedents, such as the Nordic model, it is difficult for nations to achieve this balance.

It is no accident that religious reform in Scandinavia, Germany, England, the Netherlands, and the United States gave rise to today s global capitalism.

The first European version was launched in Scandinavia in 1997 by Viasat which now operates their own channel, Viasat History.

But the example set by Scandinavian countries, which combine a generous welfare state with pro business policies and traditions, repudiates such claims.

In the 2005 rankings, Iceland scored as the least corrupt country, with the Scandinavian countries, New Zealand, and Singapore close behind.

By the nineteenth century, the development of steam and other transport meant that one third of the population of Scandinavia, Ireland, and parts of Italy emigrated.

Certain Scandinavian countries, Chinese provinces, and the city state of Singapore, for example, are ideally positioned to try this approach.

The Scandinavian social compact rests on the understanding that citizens must pay high taxes in exchange for public services.

France, it seems, does not yet share the real democratic culture of, say, Scandinavia.

Moreover, Italy spends around 4.5 of GDP on education, while the Scandinavian countries spend more than 6 of GDP.

But the commitments by the G8 and other key partners such as the Nordic states and the Netherlands also have played a critical role.

To be sure, Scandinavian growth is mediocre.

The differences for instance between the Scandinavian countries, the Mediterranean countries, and the liberal Atlantic countries like Ireland and the UK are sometimes more pronounced than those between Europe as a whole and the US.

But, while it is comfortable to live in the social democratic world of Scandinavia, Germany, and other European countries, many of them have purchased their equality on credit from future generations.

Among the single regulator countries, Singapore and the Scandinavians were successful in dodging most of the fatal bullets, while the UK evidently was not.

These include epic crises in the Scandinavian countries, Spain, and Japan, along with lesser events such as the US savings and loan crises of the 1980 s.

While most of the world s advanced countries face increasing difficulties in coping with the forces of globalization and competition from low wage countries, the Scandinavian countries Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden seem to have managed these challenges quite well.

Moreover, immigrants are generally treated with a greater sense of respect for their dignity.

The key point is that France and Germany, and many other European countries including the Scandinavian countries, with their considerable wind and hydropower potential are all recognizing that the world as a whole will have to move away from a fossil fuel based energy system.

The G 7 action plan aims to restore the flow of credit by securing interbank lending, and coordinated central bank actions have provided unprecedented levels of liquidity to the market.

This is why interest rate spreads within the eurozone have been widening, with Germany and the Nordic countries benefiting from lower borrowing costs and the problem countries being punished by a high risk premium.

The movement began in Scandinavia in the early 1990 s, but the most dramatic change came in 1997, when the United Kingdom introduced its Financial Services Authority (I was its first chairman).

For example, in high inequality societies, where poor households are deprived of economic and educational opportunities, economic growth is depressed. Then there are the Scandinavian countries, where egalitarian policies evidently have not stood in the way of economic prosperity.

Banks had reassured themselves with the belief that countries could not become insolvent.

But Americans blame irresponsible banks, while Europeans blame irresponsible southern countries like Greece.

Scandinavian countries have their share of problems, such as Denmark s significant xenophobic extreme right and Norway s occasional bouts of provincial puritanism.

Together with the Scandinavian and British constituencies, there are thus eight EU representatives on the IMF s executive board.

They felt that enlargement even to the Scandinavian and Alpine countries was going too far.

In the Scandinavian countries, as in the US, foreign competition intensified sharply during the past decade.

First of all, the Scandinavian countries, which have the greatest equality, are also among the fastest growing advanced economies, and take the example of Japan, which has experienced deflation for about 20 years but successfully maintained a decent level of equality and standard of living, Stiglitz argues.

It is no accident, for example, that Europe s most successful welfare states were created in ethnically homogeneous Scandinavia.

Indeed, the risk has become more concentrated as banks in the periphery have increased their investment in their own countries bonds.

In parallel with the Scandinavian crisis, communism collapsed in Eastern Europe in 1989 and in 1991 in the Baltic states.

Even the periphery of the eurozone is benefiting from the wall of liquidity unleashed by the Fed, the Bank of Japan, and other major central banks.