Riksbank Chief Erik Thedéen's Interest Rate Miscalculation Revealed

There was an extra zero in the Excel sheet. In his summer radio talk, Riksbank chief Erik Thedéen reveals how he miscalculated the interest rate.

I imagine the serious faces around the table as the Riksbank's board reviews Thedéen's summer script with a red pen at an emergency meeting. "No, Erik, that will make the markets panic!" "Good, Erik, that's so dull we'll have calm times until Christmas."

Of course, such a meeting never took place. But it is sensitive to have a Riksbank chief on the radio. Will he say something that affects the most important topic Swedes discuss?

I breathe a sigh of relief. Erik Thedéen is the sensible muesli in my morning yogurt, the old Volvo that never stops running.

The almost perfectly bred civil servant Thedéen, son of professors and judges, reserve officer, former director general of the Financial Supervisory Authority, delivers a highly reliable and dry talk. Sure, he miscalculated the interest rate once 30 years ago, but even that turns into a right.

He delivers a defense of stable institutions as the guarantor of Sweden's prosperity, and now he has educated the entire Swedish population as well, the guarantor personified.

Then he attempts an interest rate joke. "Don't even try to get it right, not even the Riksbank can always do it."

Oh dear, will the red pen come out after all?