Friday's number: 112...

October 30, 2017

...investors attended the 4th Nordic Investment Managers Forum in Luxembourg yesterday, the biggest turnout so far. It became apparent that the "Nordic way" is not just something you find in crime fiction. The economies of Denmark, Norway, Finland and Sweden are in good shape, not least due to a raft of reforms in recent years. They just have a slightly different way of dealing with things there. Who would have thought that many of these erstwhile welfare states would now have such a low debt-to-GDP ratio, one that some EU countries (including Germany) can only dream about? Or that they would lead the way in areas such as digital transformation, cashless payments, environmental, social and governance (ESG), and green technology? And so no one really minded that the Luxembourg weather adjusted to temperatures more customary for the Nordic countries yesterday. It was a cool nine degrees in the morning.