Sweden has never ticked along better than it does today, statistically speaking. GDP is three times higher than when I was born, and twenty times higher than when my grandmother was born. Swedish companies are making record profits. The welfare is world class and the public finances are in balance. Public health is personified by Gunde Svan and living by Anna Anka. The external environment has reached a post-industrial stage where we worry about studded-tyre particles and build tunnels for rare frogs. Of course, there are problems to solve, but most nations would burn their flags to have Sweden's troubles. We live not only in the shining city on the hill, in global terms, but also in an experimental workshop. In many areas, Sweden is in first place, driven by the fanatical attitude which three hundred years ago made the Swedes the world's most militarised and fundamentalist people, but which has now has made us the most secular, feminised and connected.