Leader: Contra turns all digital
The last paper issue will be # 2 2025
Gunnar Johansson: The United Nations and Israel
Arab countries have in vain tried to defeat Israel militarily. After the Jom Kippur War in 1973 they tried the political way instead. The first action was an oil embargo against conutries that had supported Israel, combined with steep increases in oil prices. The prices of oil quadrupled and during short period Sweden had a petrol rationing. The oil crises was a fact.
C G Holm: the black rental market
The article shows the effect of rent comtrol and the negative effects rent control has on the Swedish housing market.
Allan C. Brownfeld: The Ronald Reagan film
The new Ronald Reagan movie is in spite of negative reviews well worth watching, Contra US correspondent says.
Nils Tore Gjerde: Ukraine
Nils Tore Gjerde writes on Russia and the Ukraine.
The Budapest memorandum in defence of Ukraine
Russia promised to defend (sic!) Ukraine in the Budapest memorandum from 1993.
C G Holm: New PISA study
Every three or four years the OECD makes an international study of the skills of 15 year olds. Usually it will have large headlines in Swedish media, especially due to the low Swedish results and the high scores of our neighbour Finland. The study of 2022 has hardly been noted in Swedish media. Finland has dropped significantly and the best country in the vicinity of Sweden now is Estonia.
Georgia and Ukraine
The Soviet heritage in Georgia and Ukraine is still important.
Climate change
In a poll on climate change in the OECD 60 per cent saw rhe possibility that climate change might be the end of humanity. Much of the discussion on climate change is exaggerated.
Latin America and Democracy
During the 1970s and 1980s there were coups and military dictatorships in much of Latin America. During the 1980s the wind changed and more and more countries turned to democracies, often combined with fairly liberal general policies. This has already turned into its opposite.
JD Vance Hillbilly Elegy
(book review) The new American vice president had already before his recent political activism made a fortune with his autobiography Hillbilly Elegy. A book on hilllbillies in the American ”rust belt”.
John Kay: A tribute to the market economy
(book review) John Kay writes on the benefits of the market economy.