1. Ernst Johannes Wigforss was a Swedish politician and linguist, mostly known as a prominent member of the Social Democratic Workers' Party and Swedish Minister of Finance.
11 Facts About Ernst Wigforss
1. 2.
Ernst Wigforss made contributions in his early writings about industrial democracy and workers' self-management.
3.
Ernst Wigforss completed a doctorate in 1913 with a dissertation on the dialect of south Halland, becoming docent in Scandinavian languages at the university the same year.
4.
In 1919 Ernst Wigforss was elected as a Social Democratic member of the First Chamber of the Swedish Parliament, representing Gothenburg, and he became a member of various committees.
5.
Ernst Wigforss was appointed a member of the third cabinet of Hjalmar Branting in 1924, and after Branting's resignation in January 1925, became a member of Rickard Sandler's cabinet.
6.
Ernst Wigforss was made temporary Minister of Finance on 24 January 1925 when Fredrik Thorsson fell ill, and succeeded him on 8 May of the same year, following his death.
7.
Ernst Wigforss was again Minister of Finance in the cabinets of Per Albin Hansson and Tage Erlander from 1932 to 1949.
8.
Ernst Wigforss became Gunnar Myrdal's main political opponent with respect to the currency crisis of 1947.
9.
Ernst Wigforss inspired younger economists like Gunnar Myrdal and the Stockholm school, who worked in the same direction as Keynes at the same time.
10.
John Kenneth Galbraith writes that it "would be more fair to say 'The Swedish Economic Revolution' than the 'Keynesian revolution' in economics, and that Ernst Wigforss was first in this transformation of thinking and practice about economy".
11.
Ernst Wigforss supported the anti-nuclear movement of the 1950s and contributed to the discontinuation of the Swedish nuclear arms programme in 1962.