Sjeltur

Almost all governments in the world seem to think they can somehow “save” the economy if they bailout insolvent banks and increase government spending to ridiculous levels. A prime example is the government of the United States. Perhaps you thought former president George W. Bush was the champion of spending, but it’s actually his successor, Barack H. Obama. This year he wants to spend $3.94 trillion, that’s 32% more than last year when Bush was in office. The deficit is an astounding $1.75 trillion.

Note that this year the deficit of the US is bigger than the entire budget was in 1999, only ten years ago…

The dollars involved to fill the deficit have to come from somewhere, either by borrowing from abroad, or create the money out of thin air. In both cases the dollars don’t have an actual intrinsic value, and hyperinflation followed by a currency crisis in the future seems far more likely than improving the economy.

The Dutch government has contracted the spending disease also. Normally a minister of Finance would scream ‘bloody murder’ if the national debt went up with 47% in just a year, but not now. In January 2008 the national debt of The Netherlands was 206.2 billion euros, in January 2009 it was 304.8 billion euros. Billions of that money went to troubled banks, notably ING.

We don’t hear the Dutch minister of Finance, and leader of the Dutch Labor party PvdA, Wouter Bos, about the bill that is passed to future taxpayers. Instead we hear him talking about the shareholders of banks that get the blaim for the crisis this time. According to him they didn’t do enough to prevent the financial crisis. Again, he lost it completely. Its not the shareholders, but the Board of Directors that has this responsibility.

And guess who is member of the Board of Directors of ING, the bank that soaked up most tax euros? It is Wim Kok, former prime-minister and minister of Finance and former leader of the PvdA! Wouter Bos should ask himself, where was his buddy, Wim Kok, when the Board of Directors should have taken action to prevent the demise of ING? Clearly, Bos is barking up the wrong tree. Again!