There were flags and government blue on the Minister of Finance's digital drawing of Sweden's economic situation this afternoon.
But perhaps the minister could just as easily have been able to drive with the crayfish hat on already, and some garlands behind instead, despite the fact that the actual crayfish disc at the government's annual kickoff at Harpsund was still several hours away.
It was not surprising that the Minister of Finance was clearly happy during the press conference.
In addition to the fact that she may be on her way to becoming party leader, she had a historically very different message for the Ministry of Finance: Money exists - or "Para exists" as it is called in other circles than the government.
The Minister of Finance announced with satisfaction that she considers herself to have 74 unfinanced billions to put into the budget for next year.
That is almost twice as much as the National Institute of Economic Research's estimate of SEK 40 billion.
Economics professors and bank economists have landed somewhere between the National Institute of Economic Research and the government.
The government seems to have made up its mind
Growth looks good, 4.4 percent this year according to the government's forecast.
Central government debt is declining.
It is in full swing in industry, but also in more and more other sectors.
Unemployment is on the way down again.
Still, the state will borrow more money and send it into the economy, also next year.
Last year's Harpsund announcement of more than SEK 100 billion in unfunded crisis measures is now being followed up by an additional SEK 74 billion.
Over the summer, the government also seems to have decided to ignore turning the crisis in the public finances into a surplus in 2022. It will have to wait until 2023.
Saving oneself from crises has otherwise for decades been the only requirement from both responsible finance ministers and the world's heaviest organizations and experts, including the OECD and the International Monetary Fund, IMF.
Here in Sweden, we remember demands for painful austerity, mainly from the crisis of the 1990s, when our current Minister of Finance Magdalena Andersson started working in the Government Offices under Göran Persson, from the Asian crisis in the 1990s, and from the financial crisis of 2008-2009, when our then Minister of Finance Anders Borg, together with the IMF, pushed for austerity measures in the Baltics.
Should spend out of the crisis
Now the world economists have completely changed.
In connection with the corona crisis, public money would suddenly be thrown out.
In the beginning, when the whole world economy came to a standstill, it was an obvious position.
But the overall world view still seems, even though there is full economic momentum in many places, to be that this crisis should both governments and central banks spend out of the way.
Reference is made to the setbacks following the financial crisis of 2008-2009, when aid was withdrawn too quickly.
But really, it's probably mostly about the fact that this time so many thousands of billions have been pumped out in support money that one is simply terrified of mega-crashes when they are withdrawn.
In any case, today Magdalena Andersson gratefully referred to the OECD, the EU and the IMF, with quotes and everything, to substantiate the message of making a big impact in the budget.
A big plump in the table
Of course, the large amount of cash also makes it a little less difficult to get a budget that satisfies the reluctant and contradictory parties C and V. The more money there is, the more likely it is enough to make everyone happy.
But no matter how much all parties are satisfied, there is an important issue that they still do not obviously solve.
It's about the big blunder in the table with nice numbers: long-term unemployment.
It has set record after record during the corona crisis, and it has not turned down.
190,000 people are long-term unemployed.
That is three times more than before the financial crisis.
It slows growth, it increases the societal problems of exclusion and it is a tragedy for those affected.
And it is not enough to "pair": you have to do the right things for the money.
Which did not succeed after the financial crisis.