Wall Street Pathology & Jeffrey Sachs

Serge Melki/Wikimedia Commons

Many people would not be surprised if businessmen, accountants or bankers are described as only interested in the bottom-line, maybe even greedy or insensitive, but how about being "pathological greedy"? Those words were used by Jeffrey Sachs, economist and Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. At a recent conference Fixing the Banking System for Good, he gave the following frank talk about solving the banking problems but also about greedy and even criminal behavior among the Wall Street bankers he has been dealing with in recent years......

Dutch Economy Falling Behind Germany (part 2)

The Netherlands (Wikimedia)

Last week I wrote about the English magazine The Economist reporting that the Dutch economy was facing headwinds in keeping up with its' big neighbor, Germany. Now an article in the German weekly Der Spiegel rings the alarm bell for Holland, in Underwater: The Netherlands Falls Prey to Economic Crisis. Is this a sign that the risks are now moving from the Eurozone periphery to its' core, or is it just a relative slowdown for a once very strong and predictable economy? 

"The Netherlands, Berlin's most important ally in pushing for greater budgetary discipline in Europe, has fallen into an economic crisis itself. The once exemplary economy is suffering from huge debts and a burst real estate bubble, which has stalled growth and endangered jobs.
 "Underwater" is a good description of the crisis in a country where large parts of the territory are below sea level. Ironically, the Netherlands widely viewed as a model economy, is facing the kind of real estate crisis that has only affected the United States and Spain until now. Banks in the Netherlands have also pumped billions upon billions in loans into the private and commercial real estate market since the 1990s, without ensuring that borrowers had sufficient collateral.
 
.....More than a decade ago, the Dutch central bank recognized the dangers of this euphoria, but its warnings went unheeded. Only last year did the new government, under conservative-liberal Prime Minister Mark Rutte, amend the generous tax loopholes, which gradually began to expire in January. But now it's almost too late. No nation in the euro zone is as deeply in debt as the Netherlands, where banks have a total of about €650 billion in mortgage loans on their books.

It's 2013: Time to Abolish the Dutch Monarchy?

Queen Beatrix (Frozenimage/CreativeCommons)

Some time ago I reported on the upcoming abdication of the Dutch Queen Beatrix after 30 years as Queen of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and its' head of state. She will be resigning on April 30, 2013. April 30 has been celebrated annually as Queen's Day, celebrating the Queen's birthday - and the original birthday of Queen Beatrix' mother, the former Queen Juliana. Queen Beatrix will be succeeded by Prince Willem-Alexander, who will be the first King of the Netherlands in 123 years. The Queen and the Dutch Royal family are generally very popular and are considered an intrical part of Dutch society, as Dutch as the dykes, Amsterdam, wooden shoes and the Dutch national soccer team. However, different, more critical, opinions about the Dutch monarchy have been expressed.  In 1996 the "Republican Society" or "Republikeins Genootschap" was set up, consisting of a number of independent thinkers and well-known Dutch personalities, that supported the restoration of the Dutch Republic from 1581.  The Netherlands's history is one of a mercantile republic that only in the 19th century became a monarchy, first in 1806 as the Kingdom of Holland with Napoleon Bonaparte's brother Louis as the King of this "country" which was then part of the French empire. Then in 1815, the Netherlands became the United Kingdom of the Netherlands with (Dutch) William I as its' King, and consisting in the north of the current Netherlands and in the south of the current Belgium. In 1839, Belgium separated and became an independent Kingdom, and the northern part continued as the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Now in April 2013, a Dutch journalist Max Westerman, a TV correspondent living in the U.S. for 30 years, wrote a controversial article in the Wall Street Journal, calling for the abolishment of the Dutch monarchy. In this article, "It's 2013: Abolish the Dutch Monarchy" he says:

The Rijksmuseum Reopening in Amsterdam

The Night Watch/De Nachwacht (Wikimedia)

The Dutch Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam will be reopening on April 13, after a 10 -year renovation,  and with it Rembrandt van Rijn's masterpiece "The Night Watch" will be back ......., along with works by Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen and thousands of other Dutch cultural and artistic artifacts,
The Huffington Post reports.  The Rijksmuseum is the leading Dutch museum dedicated to art from the Dutch Golden Age, i.e. the 17th century when the Dutch were leading in art, science, trade and military power. If you are visiting the Netherlands,  this museum should be part of your itinerary. For some Dutch "nightwatch" fun watch the following video:

Stiglitz on Jobs and a Revolution in the Real Economy

Serge Melki/Wikimedia Commons

While going through a stack of old magazines, I found this Vanity Fair article, The Book of Jobs, by Joseph Stiglitz, economist and Nobel Prize winner. Stiglitz argues here that the economic downturn is  not "just" due to the financial crisis, but caused by a revolutionary shift in the real economy from industry to services. As so often with fundamental analysis, even though it was released in January 2012, it's equally relevant in today's economy. This is what Stiglitz said:

 "It has now been almost five years since the bursting of the housing bubble, and four years since the onset of the recession. There are 6.6 million fewer jobs in the United States than there were four years ago. Some 23 million Americans who would like to work full-time cannot get a job. Almost half of those who are unemployed have been unemployed long-term. Wages are falling—the real income of a typical American household is now below the level it was in 1997."

The continued dismal unemployment situation was confirmed by The Wall Street Journal when stating last week that "only 14 of the country’s 100 biggest cities have more jobs than they did pre-2008/2009 recession."
 
Stiglitz continues: