A bank goes broke
A week ago this blog featured a story of a minor Dutch bank that got in trouble as a result of its high risk business strategy. This Monday the fate of the bank was settled: DSB Bank is officially bankrupt (Dutch). The immediate problem for the bank was its insolvency. Depositors were insecure about the ability of the bank to protect their savings. The deposits were withdrawn from the bank as quickly as was possible and the bank lost most of their their reserves. In order to be rescued the bank needed about a 100 million Euros from the Dutch Central Bank (DNB) which is tasked with guaranteeing the banking system in The Netherlands. One of the four big banks, ING, had already received a 10 Billion bailout earlier in the year. Minister of Finance Wouter Bos did not support DSB. He insisted that DSB was responsible for itself. Which it is.
Comparing a big bank with a small bank
The question which has to be answered next is why ING was not responsible for itself in a similar situation. The answer is that ING is too big to fail. As an example of this bigness, about a quarter of all Dutch payrolled employees receive their montly wage on an ING account an a similar share of Dutch firms are using ING bank accounts for their transactions. If the bank would fail the other banks would not be able to administer the application for new private and business accounts quickly enough. Millions of Dutchmen would not receive wages and dozens of thousands of companies would not be able to pay their bills. The dislocation of the economy would cripple Dutch society.
The advantage of the small bank for society
By contrast DSB is a bank with a small market share in private accounts. Account holders can swith to other accounts without swamping the big banks so there is hardly any economic dislocation. And thusly the finance minister and the head of the national bank saw no reason to save DSB.
Is it good to have four big banks?
The new situation is that the big four banks (RABO, ING, Fortis, ABN-AMRO) in The Netherlands have been strengthened by the fall of DSB. The Dutch banking system has become more monolithic as a result of this. The very fact that the governments was able to let DSB go under shows that it is preferable to have a larger number of smaller, local banks than the current system where only four banks rule the roost.
Showing posts with label Government. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Government. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Abolishing The Netherlands: a new blueprint
The nitty - gritty of multiparty democracy
Because The Netherlands has a multiparty system its electoral politics are considerably more complicated than those of countries like the UK or USA.
After the national elections on 22 November 2006 it turned out that the political landscape had fragmented. The "national consensus" has broken up and parties that oppose the weakening of the national state by granting power to supra-national organisations such as the EU strengthened. This happened on the Left where the socialist SP gained. And on the Right where the hardline Conservative PVV Freedom Party appeared in a strength: 9 seats. The centrist EU aligned parties weakened.
It is not so that immediately after the election a new government can take power. In a multi-party system government is by coalition, and coalitions are alliances. Alliances may require time to be put together.
The agreement or 4 year plan
Since the 1980ies Dutch coalitions prepare their 4 year government stint carefully. Politically important matters are covered in an agreement called "regeeraccoord". The previously agreed "regeeraccoord" is almost a blueprint for the government during the reign of a coalition. Parliament is reduced to rubberstamping laws that result from this agreement for the next 4 years, unless the goverment falls.
Because of the sheer difficulty of creating an agreement that looks 4 years in the future, putting together a coalition takes months. Right now a coalition of Christian Democrats, Labour and Christian Union has been put together. An agreement has been sussed out and has duly been leaked to the press.
Talking heads
It is now time to put heads on the agreement. J.P. Balkenende who has been in charge since 2002 will the new premier. The leaders of Labour and the Christian Union, Wouter Bos and André Rouvoet will both be Vice-Premiers, causing addition instability in this coalition.
Ministers and block votes
And then it is time to look at the ministers.
In the municipal elections of March 2006 the increased power of the immigrant voting blocks in the major cities came to the fore. Parties need popular immigrants in order to attract these voting blocks. It is the Left which gets 99 percent of these immigrant votes. So they have to appoint Aldermen and Ministers in order to show to the immigrant colonists that their voted have not gone unheeded.
The buzz of this phase of the 2006 election coalition formation is that the Minister of Intergration will be no other than: Achmed Aboutaleb, the Amsterdam Alderman(Dutch).
Achmed Aboutaleb
Achmed Aboutaleb was born in Beni Sidel in Morocco on 1961. He emigrated to The Netherlands at the age of 15, where he succesfully completed the Polytechnic (HTS).
He became a journalist and was scouted by a prominent Dutch feminist and Labour politician whose spokesman he became. Afterwards he became director of FORUM a multicultural institute which is funded by government subsidies.
The Dutch political class loses control of the cities
After the attack on the USA by Al-Qaeda in 2001 there was widespread unrest in The Netherlands with strong hostility between the ethnic Dutch and joyful Muslim immigrant communities. During this time Labour mayors in the big cities, with large immigrant populations realised they have no access to their voters, who are Muslims and whose heartstrings are pulled by their religion and ethnic affections. Mayor Cohen of Amsterdam visited mosques in Amsterdam together with Fatima Elatik a Moroccan politician in local Amsterdam politics (Stadsdeelraad Zeeburg). Mrs. Elatik does not have the necessary gravitas to represent Labour though.
When a Amsterdam Labour politician (Rob "F###ingMoroccans" Oudkerk) made a slip an opening appeared in the Amsterdam Labour hierarchie. At roughly the same time Theo van Gogh was assasinated by Mohammed Bouyeri. Aboutaleb took charge and moved into Oudkerk's slot. He became a prominent member of the Amsterdam Labour clique. His position was confirmed after the 7 March 2006 elections, when he received a massive block vote from Moroccan, Turkish and other Muslims.
He is now being mentioned for a position as a Minister or Deputy Minister on the Intergration and Immigration Ministry, the old ministry of Rita Verdonk. But Mr. Bos, the leader of Labour wrote in a book written to assist the 2006 election campaign that he would like to have Aboutaleb on the Ministry of Education, rather than on Immigration. So it is unclear where he will pop up.
Throwing the city gates wide open
To make matters worse the coalition agreement mentions amnesty for failed asylum seekers, no obstacles to family reunification and a special program to allow "seasonal migrants" from Africa and Asia to work in The Netherlands. This is in addition to the open borders policy for Eastern Europeans. In effect the 2006 coalition agreement abolishes The Netherlands by willful abrogation of control over its borders, a control that had been more or less regained after the 2002 "Fortuyn" elections. 50.000 asylum seekers who failed to gain aylum because they did not qualify will be given full asylum seekers status leading to citizenship. And chain immigration of their relatives in due course which will explode their numbers and power.
The pro-ethnic lobby crosses party lines
There is broad support for Aboutaleb as a minister. Christian Democratic leaders petitioned the national leadership to appoint at least one Muslim minister. Currying favour of the strengthening immigrant vote, while leaving the doors wide open to further immigration and a further strengthening of the voting block not under the control of ethnic Dutch politicians. These people are willfully digging their own demise, which is their privilege.
But do they have to drag us, their people, with them?
Because The Netherlands has a multiparty system its electoral politics are considerably more complicated than those of countries like the UK or USA.
After the national elections on 22 November 2006 it turned out that the political landscape had fragmented. The "national consensus" has broken up and parties that oppose the weakening of the national state by granting power to supra-national organisations such as the EU strengthened. This happened on the Left where the socialist SP gained. And on the Right where the hardline Conservative PVV Freedom Party appeared in a strength: 9 seats. The centrist EU aligned parties weakened.
It is not so that immediately after the election a new government can take power. In a multi-party system government is by coalition, and coalitions are alliances. Alliances may require time to be put together.
The agreement or 4 year plan
Since the 1980ies Dutch coalitions prepare their 4 year government stint carefully. Politically important matters are covered in an agreement called "regeeraccoord". The previously agreed "regeeraccoord" is almost a blueprint for the government during the reign of a coalition. Parliament is reduced to rubberstamping laws that result from this agreement for the next 4 years, unless the goverment falls.
Because of the sheer difficulty of creating an agreement that looks 4 years in the future, putting together a coalition takes months. Right now a coalition of Christian Democrats, Labour and Christian Union has been put together. An agreement has been sussed out and has duly been leaked to the press.
Talking heads
It is now time to put heads on the agreement. J.P. Balkenende who has been in charge since 2002 will the new premier. The leaders of Labour and the Christian Union, Wouter Bos and André Rouvoet will both be Vice-Premiers, causing addition instability in this coalition.
Ministers and block votes
And then it is time to look at the ministers.
In the municipal elections of March 2006 the increased power of the immigrant voting blocks in the major cities came to the fore. Parties need popular immigrants in order to attract these voting blocks. It is the Left which gets 99 percent of these immigrant votes. So they have to appoint Aldermen and Ministers in order to show to the immigrant colonists that their voted have not gone unheeded.
The buzz of this phase of the 2006 election coalition formation is that the Minister of Intergration will be no other than: Achmed Aboutaleb, the Amsterdam Alderman(Dutch).
Achmed Aboutaleb
Achmed Aboutaleb was born in Beni Sidel in Morocco on 1961. He emigrated to The Netherlands at the age of 15, where he succesfully completed the Polytechnic (HTS).
He became a journalist and was scouted by a prominent Dutch feminist and Labour politician whose spokesman he became. Afterwards he became director of FORUM a multicultural institute which is funded by government subsidies.
The Dutch political class loses control of the cities
After the attack on the USA by Al-Qaeda in 2001 there was widespread unrest in The Netherlands with strong hostility between the ethnic Dutch and joyful Muslim immigrant communities. During this time Labour mayors in the big cities, with large immigrant populations realised they have no access to their voters, who are Muslims and whose heartstrings are pulled by their religion and ethnic affections. Mayor Cohen of Amsterdam visited mosques in Amsterdam together with Fatima Elatik a Moroccan politician in local Amsterdam politics (Stadsdeelraad Zeeburg). Mrs. Elatik does not have the necessary gravitas to represent Labour though.
When a Amsterdam Labour politician (Rob "F###ingMoroccans" Oudkerk) made a slip an opening appeared in the Amsterdam Labour hierarchie. At roughly the same time Theo van Gogh was assasinated by Mohammed Bouyeri. Aboutaleb took charge and moved into Oudkerk's slot. He became a prominent member of the Amsterdam Labour clique. His position was confirmed after the 7 March 2006 elections, when he received a massive block vote from Moroccan, Turkish and other Muslims.
He is now being mentioned for a position as a Minister or Deputy Minister on the Intergration and Immigration Ministry, the old ministry of Rita Verdonk. But Mr. Bos, the leader of Labour wrote in a book written to assist the 2006 election campaign that he would like to have Aboutaleb on the Ministry of Education, rather than on Immigration. So it is unclear where he will pop up.
Throwing the city gates wide open
To make matters worse the coalition agreement mentions amnesty for failed asylum seekers, no obstacles to family reunification and a special program to allow "seasonal migrants" from Africa and Asia to work in The Netherlands. This is in addition to the open borders policy for Eastern Europeans. In effect the 2006 coalition agreement abolishes The Netherlands by willful abrogation of control over its borders, a control that had been more or less regained after the 2002 "Fortuyn" elections. 50.000 asylum seekers who failed to gain aylum because they did not qualify will be given full asylum seekers status leading to citizenship. And chain immigration of their relatives in due course which will explode their numbers and power.
The pro-ethnic lobby crosses party lines
There is broad support for Aboutaleb as a minister. Christian Democratic leaders petitioned the national leadership to appoint at least one Muslim minister. Currying favour of the strengthening immigrant vote, while leaving the doors wide open to further immigration and a further strengthening of the voting block not under the control of ethnic Dutch politicians. These people are willfully digging their own demise, which is their privilege.
But do they have to drag us, their people, with them?
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