Anders Erik Borg (born 11 January 1968) is a Swedish

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

who served as

Minister for Finance A finance minister is an executive or cabinet position in charge of one or more of government finances, economic policy and financial regulation. A finance minister's portfolio has a large variety of names around the world, such as "treasury", ...

in the

Swedish government The Government of the Kingdom of Sweden ( sv, Konungariket Sveriges regering) is the national cabinet of Sweden, and the country's executive authority. The Government consists of the Prime Ministerappointed and dismissed by the Speaker of the R ...

from 2006 to 2014. He is a member of the Swedish

Moderate Party The Moderate Party ( sv, Moderata samlingspartiet , ; M), commonly referred to as the Moderates ( ), is a liberal-conservative political party in Sweden. The party generally supports tax cuts, the free market, civil liberties and economic liber ...

Youth and education

Borg was born in Skarpnäck,

Stockholm Stockholm () is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, largest city of Sweden as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in Scandinavia. Approximately 980,000 people liv ...

but grew up in

Norrköping Norrköping (; ) is a city in the province of Östergötland in eastern Sweden and the seat of Norrköping Municipality, Östergötland County, about 160 km southwest of the national capital Stockholm, 40 km east of county seat Linköp ...

Östergötland County Östergötland County ( sv, Östergötlands län) is a county or ''län'' in southeastern Sweden. It has land borders with the counties of Kalmar to the southeast, Jönköping to the southwest, Örebro to the northwest, and Södermanland to the n ...

. He became a member of the

Moderate Youth League The Moderate Youth League ( sv, Moderata ungdomsförbundet ; MUF), officially known in English as the Swedish Young Conservatives, is the youth wing of the Swedish Moderate Party. Of the political youth organizations that received financial supp ...

in the upper secondary school in Norrköping. From 1988 to 1991 he studied

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

economic history Economic history is the academic learning of economies or economic events of the past. Research is conducted using a combination of historical methods, statistical methods and the application of economic theory to historical situations and ins ...

, and

philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

. He also attended

Stockholm University Stockholm University ( sv, Stockholms universitet) is a public research university in Stockholm, Sweden, founded as a college in 1878, with university status since 1960. With over 33,000 students at four different faculties: law, humanities, so ...

from 1995 to 1997, where his studies in economics included participation in graduate level courses despite the fact that he had not completed a bachelor's degree. He has yet to earn an academic degree. During his period at Uppsala University, Borg was chairman of the

Uppsala Student Union Uppsala Student Union (''Uppsala studentkår'') is one of four students' unions at Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden. According to Swedish law, university students are no longer required to be members of a students' union since 2010. Uppsal ...

as well as the

conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization i ...

Heimdal Association Heimdal is a borough in the city of Trondheim in the municipality of Trondheim in Trøndelag county, Norway. It covers the western and southwestern parts of the municipality. The village area that is also called Heimdal is located in the southe ...

( sv, Föreningen Heimdal). From 1990 to 1991 he was vice chairman of the

Confederation of Swedish Conservative and Liberal Students The Confederation of Swedish Conservative and Liberal Students ( sv, Fria moderata studentförbundet, ''FMSF'', "Free Moderate Student League") is a Swedish student organisation. It considers itself to be non-partisan, but is politically close to ...

( sv, Fria moderata studentförbundet). Also as a teenager, Borg was a

libertarian Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and minimize the state's e ...

and advocate of

drug legalization Drug liberalization is a drug policy process of decriminalizing or legalizing the use or sale of prohibited drugs. Variations of drug liberalization include: drug legalization, drug re-legalization and drug decriminalization. Proponents of drug ...

, on one occasion writing a newspaper article calling for drug decriminalization in Sweden. He has admitted to smoking

cannabis ''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: ''Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternatively ...

in his youth.

Professional career

From 1990 to 1991, Borg was an

editorial An editorial, or leading article (UK) or leader (UK) is an article written by the senior editorial people or publisher of a newspaper, magazine, or any other written document, often unsigned. Australian and major United States newspapers, suc ...

writer for the newspaper ''

Svenska Dagbladet ''Svenska Dagbladet'' (, "The Swedish Daily News"), abbreviated SvD, is a daily newspaper published in Stockholm, Sweden. History and profile The first issue of ''Svenska Dagbladet'' appeared on 18 December 1884. During the beginning of the ...

''. Following the centre-right parties' victory in the 1991 general election, Borg became a Political Adviser at the Prime Minister's Office with responsibility for coordination of the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Public Administration, the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education and Science. From 1993 to 1994 he served as a Political Adviser to

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Carl Bildt Nils Daniel Carl Bildt (born 15 July 1949) is a Swedish politician and diplomat who was Prime Minister of Sweden from 1991 to 1994. He was the leader of the Moderate Party from 1986 to 1999. Bildt served as Sweden's Minister for Foreign Affairs ...

. Following defeat of the Moderate Party in the 1994 general election, Borg worked in the private

Bank A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets. Because ...

sector. From 1995 to 1998 he worked at the company Transferator Alfred Berg as responsible for economic and political analysis. From 1998 to 1999 he was Chief Economist at ABN Amro Bank in Stockholm and from 1999 to 2001 he was Head of the Economic Analysis Department at

Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken AB (, abbreviated SEB, is a northern European financial services group headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden. In Sweden and the Baltic countries, SEB has a full financial service offering. In Denmark, Finland, Norway, ...

(SEB) in Stockholm. Klas Eklund, senior economist at SEB, said that Borg "is very quick, he reads profusely, he soaks up information like a sponge and he's very receptive, very intelligent. Before he became minister of finance, he was a technocrat, a brilliant technocrat. He was like a volcano, always erupting with new ideas." From 2001 to 2002, he served as an adviser on monetary policy issues to the executive board of the Swedish central bank

Riksbanken Sveriges Riksbank, or simply the ''Riksbank'', is the central bank of Sweden. It is the world's oldest central bank and the List of oldest banks in continuous operation, fourth oldest bank in operation. Etymology The first part of the word ''r ...

. He was recruited as Chief Economist of the Moderate Party in 2003 by

Bo Lundgren Bo Axel Magnus Lundgren (born 11 July 1947) is a Swedish politician. He was the leader of the Moderate Party from 1999 to 2003.Fredrik Reinfeldt John Fredrik Reinfeldt (pronounced ; born 4 August 1965) is a Swedish economist, lecturer, and former politician who was Prime Minister of Sweden from 2006 to 2014, and chairman of the liberal conservative Moderate Party from 2003 to 2015. He wa ...

. He also served as a member of the board of the Swedish Labour Market Administration ( sv, Arbetsmarknadsstyrelsen) from 2005 to 2006.

Minister for Finance

Following the victory in the 2006 general election, Borg was appointed

in the new centre-right cabinet led by

Fredrik Reinfeldt, that assumed office on 6 October 2006. Borg has been recognised as the mastermind behind the new Swedish government's economic doctrine, focusing on

proactive Proactivity or proactive behavior refers to self-initiated behavior that endeavours to solve a problem before it has occurred. Proactive behavior involves acting in advance of a future situation, rather than reacting. It refers to taking control o ...

measures against

unemployment Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for Work (human activity), w ...

: an incremental dismantling of the social democratic

welfare state A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equitabl ...

, with larger self-financing of welfare systems, lower taxes and fewer benefits as the way to create new motivation to work and more business opportunities and creation of jobs. He developed these

New Classical Economics New classical macroeconomics, sometimes simply called new classical economics, is a school of thought in macroeconomics that builds its analysis entirely on a neoclassical economics, neoclassical framework. Specifically, it emphasizes the importa ...

policies in his role as chief economist in the Moderate Party. On 5 September 2007,

Minister for Defence {{unsourced, date=February 2021 A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is an often-used name for the part of a government responsible for matters of defence, found in states ...

Mikael Odenberg Mikael Ingemarsson Odenberg (born 14 December 1953) is a Swedish politician of the Moderate Party. He was a Member of Parliament from 1991 to 2006 and Minister for Defence in the Swedish government from 2006 to 2007. From 1 March 2008 to 28 Febru ...

resigned from the cabinet due to disagreement with Borg regarding funds for the

Swedish Armed Forces The Swedish Armed Forces ( sv, Försvarsmakten, "the Defense Force") is the government agency that forms the armed forces of Sweden, tasked with the defense of the country as well as with promoting Sweden's wider interests, supporting internati ...

. On 29 November 2008, Borg, in an interview on Swedish

TV4 TV4 or TV 4 may refer to: *TV4 (Poland), a private Polish television station *TV4 (Sweden), a Swedish television network **TV4 Group, owners of the Swedish television station *South African Broadcasting Corporation TV4, a channel operated by the st ...

, criticized US President-elect

Barack Obama's Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

economic agenda calling it "untenable". Although his policies have been described as economically liberal, Borg has a different view. "One can probably call me a quite pragmatic politician. For me, the highest priority is to make sure that we have sound public finances."

Other work

Borg was advisor to the

Finnish government sv, Finlands statsråd , border = , image = File:Finnish Government logo.png , image_size = 250 , caption = , date = , state = Republic of Finland , polity = , coun ...

from 2014 to 2015. He was called for this work by the Moderate Party's Finnish sister party the National Coalition Party and its companion the Centre Party of Finland. The purpose was to use the reputation of Sweden and Swedes in marketing unpopular policies to Finnish people in a situation where International Monetary Fund was in bad light due to its operations in Greece and Spain. In 2015, Borg is deputy chairman of

Investment AB Kinnevik Kinnevik AB () is a Swedish investment company that was founded in 1936 by the Stenbeck, Klingspor and von Horn families. Kinnevik is an active and long-term owner investing primarily in digital consumer businesses. Current CEO, Georgi Ganev, w ...

and

Millicom Millicom International Cellular SA (NASDAQ U.S.: TIGO, NASDAQ Stockholm: TIGO_SDB) is a Luxembourgish fixed line and mobile telecommunications services provider dedicated to emerging markets in Latin America operating under the Tigo brand. As of D ...

. He resigned as deputy chairman of technology investment group Kinnevik and as adviser to

Citigroup Citigroup Inc. or Citi (Style (visual arts), stylized as citi) is an American multinational investment banking, investment bank and financial services corporation headquartered in New York City. The company was formed by the merger of banking ...

2017 amid a scandal over his allegedly drunken behavior at a party. In 2018 Borg joined

IPsoft Amelia, formerly known as IPsoft, is an American technology company. It primarily focuses on artificial intelligence and cognitive and autonomic products for business. Its main products are Amelia, a conversational AI platform, and Amelia Hy ...

as Senior Advisor, with main role to promote the company's AI platform Amelia.

Personal life

Borg was previously married to Susanna "Sanna" Borg (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Ölander), with whom he has three children. He used to live with his family in Bie,

Katrineholm Municipality Katrineholm Municipality ( sv, Katrineholms kommun) is a municipality in Södermanland County in southeast Sweden. Its seat is located in the city of Katrineholm. The present municipality was created in 1971, when the ''City of Katrineholm'' (ins ...

Södermanland County Södermanland County ( sv, Södermanlands län) is a county or '' län'' on the southeast coast of Sweden. In the local Sörmlandic dialects it is virtually universally shortened and pronounced as Sörmlands län, or simply Sörmland, which is t ...

. Borg has said that he will serve only two terms as Finance Minister, ultimately to spend more time with his family. Indeed, he describes his government service as "conscription," having never held an elected office. Borg was in a relationship with

Dominika Peczynski Dominika Peczynski (born 20 September 1970) is a Polish-Swedish singer, model and television host. Army of Lovers She joined the Swedish pop music group Army of Lovers in 1992, making her debut with the group with "Hasta Mañana", a cover of ...

, a PR professional and 1990s pop music star with her former band

Army of Lovers Army of Lovers is a Swedish dance- pop group which formed in 1987 and had a number of hits in Europe throughout the 1990s. Some of their biggest successes include the song "Crucified", which was a big hit in Europe, charting 31 weeks in the Eu ...

. They married on 3 November 2018. On 22 June 2022, Peczynski announced that she and Borg had filed for divorce without "time for reflection", meaning immediately. Unlike most of the Moderate Party members of the cabinet, Borg describes himself as a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

. In July 2017, Borg was involved in a scandal due to his behaviour at a party in Stockholm, where, heavily intoxicated, he is alleged to have acted in an extremely vulgar, invasive and obscene manner, showing off his private parts amongst other things. He later apologised for this incident, claiming he had had a "blackout", "was under large pressure", and did not recall the events in question.

References

External links

Anders Borg
at the

Government Offices of Sweden Rosenbad (, lit. "rosen bath") is a building in central Stockholm, precinct of Norrmalm. It is a building owned by the Swedish State and serves as the seat of the Government. The present government of Sweden is the right-leaning Kristersson Cab ...