An unexpected Swedish victory is just the latest in an unprecedented run of success worldwide for fiscally conservative parties, beginning after the Greek debt crisis in April, which should sound both optimistic and cautionary notes for GOP leaders.

At this AEI event, Sweden's minister of finance, Anders Borg, will explain Sweden's consolidation efforts, which were based on a mixture of expenditure cuts and tax increases.

Despite some positive labor market reforms,Sweden's bloated welfare system and crushing tax burden remain entrenched.

Without much fanfare, some of Europe's social democracies have jumped ahead of the United States on market-based reform.

How have wage-setting, high tax rates, and business tax policies affected businesses in Sweden?

Greener members of branches of the U.S. government, as well as complicit green acolytes within the American chemical industry, will welcome European environmentaldirectives.

Sweden provides a prime example of new research that shows that bigger government means slower growth, which should serve as a warning to the United States.

It is old news that the S&P rating agency downgraded the US foreign-credit rating from the coveted AAA to the less impressive AA+ on August 5. But as Republicans look ahead to the possibility that they might defeat Obama, they will inevitably seek ways to recover the exalted AAA status. If history is any guide, repairing the damage done to the U.S. bond rating will be a long, hard slog.