Ernst's Economy for you

Help Roger Labruyère naar het EK Schaken in Bratislava

2019-06-12T19:55:00.000+02:00

Roger Labruyère tijdens Tata Steel Chess 2018 Foto door: Alina L'Ami Beste vrienden en relaties, Laat ik allereerst beginnen met een verontschuldiging. Een welgemeend sorry voor wat ik ga doen met dit volgende artikel! Roger met Lucas van Foreest tijdensTata Steel Chess 2019 Het is namelijk niet mijn gewoonte om geld te vragen voor een goed doel. Ik heb dat nog nooit in het

“Dear Theresa… You are in a situation in which you can’t win. You can, however, count your blessings and go for the least bad option”. Open letter to the English Prime Minister Theresa May

2018-12-16T23:03:00.000+01:00

Dear Theresa, I am Ernst Labruyère from The Netherlands and I have some well-meant advice for you. I closely follow the political and economic situation in your country via the newspapers and news bulletins. What I see is that you are stuck between the proverbial rock and the hard place. You are in a situation in which you simply can’t win. There is hardly a way out in which you keep your

The Dutch housing bubble is back at pre-crisis levels and in fact worse. An implosion might be imminent.

2018-12-01T15:41:00.001+01:00

The Dutch housing situation is akin to a bubble again, almost purely based upon speculation and expat housing in the big cities. It might explode sooner than you think, as the underlying wage growth is actually negative. Everybody who would take a look at the Dutch housing market in 2018, would think that the Dutch economy is growing dramatically at the moment. Since June, 2013

Open brief aan Minister-President Mark Rutte, teneinde mijn complimenten over te brengen mbt zijn visie op het Europese Leger.

2018-11-26T20:14:00.001+01:00

Almere, 26 november 2018 Aan: Zijne Excellentie M. Rutte, Minister-President van het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden Betreft: Open brief teneinde mijn complimenten over te brengen mbt je visie op het Europese Leger Uwe Excellentie de Minister-President / Beste Mark, Ik wilde je eerst een SMS sturen, omdat ik van CEO Paul Polman van Unilever had gehoord dat je dan binnen twee

How did we get here? How did the virulent and hostile nationalism get so much grip in our countries. Was it the Second Great Depression as I call it? Because that one is still far from over.

2018-11-18T13:59:00.002+01:00

There is one thing that I want to get out of the way... People with an economic background refer to the current enduring crisis as The Great Recession. According to them the current situation is not a depression like the Great Depression in the Twenties and Thirties of last century. However, I don’t understand why it is still referred to as a recession and not a depression. I really think

Schiphol, Lelystad Airport en de tactiek van het “stilletjes doorgaan en voldongen feiten creëren”

2018-11-17T14:22:00.004+01:00

Schiphol Amsterdam Airport… één van de grootste luchthavens van Europa en een naam waar veel Nederlanders een warm gevoel van binnen door krijgen. Volgens velen is Schiphol namelijk één van de kurken waarop de Nederlandse economie drijft, omdat het: enorme aantallen charter- en lijnpassagiers de wereld rondvliegt; daarbij een spil is in het internationale aansluitingsnetwerk tussen de

My vision on the United Kingdom and the European Union in ten tweets!

2018-11-14T23:19:00.005+01:00

1. Somewhere I have a sneaky suspicion that the EU is fumbled into a lousy deal with the cunning Brittons, in which the details are hidden in 583 pages of prolixitous crap. The fact that Michel Barnier looked agitated and annoyed tonight, worries me. #Havewebeenhustled?

Mijn visie op het Verenigd Koninkrijk en de Europese Unie in tien tweets!

2018-11-14T22:38:00.003+01:00

1. Ergens heb ik het griezelige gevoel dat de #EU één of andere beroerde deal met sluwe Britten in gerommeld wordt, waarbij de details in 583 pagina's vol wol en geblaat zijn verstopt. Het feit dat Michel Barnier geagiteerd en geïrriteerd oogde [vanavond], baart mij zorgen. #Nietinhetpakgenaaid? “Jaah, we zijn eruit. We hebben besloten om niet door te aan met de afschaffing vd dividendbelasting.

The case Jamal Khashoggi is unprecedented and a benchmark for the brutality of undemocratic regimes against “rogue” citizens.

2018-10-13T15:48:00.003+02:00

Well, he'll offer you a cigarette He'll offer you a light Oh but he hasn't finished with you yet On another long knife night Nik Kershaw – Human Racing If anything, 2018 has perhaps been the year of the ruler: the democratically chosen or unelected leader of a country, who leaves little doubt that he is the man in charge. Everybody can name a few rulers that left a lasting impression

“Dear Mr. Bolton. What are you so afraid of and what triggers your war against the ICC?? Open letter to US National Security Advisor John Bolton…

2018-10-06T16:02:00.002+02:00

Dear Mr. Bolton, There is little doubt that the United States is still the most powerful country in the World... It is arguably still the largest economy in the World and its military force is second to none, with vast amounts well-equipped soldiers and with the help of the best and most sophisticated arms arsenal ever to win every battle in every situation and on every terrain. On top of

Open response to scientist Chris Verhoeven of the Delft Institute of Technology: a robot is not a pet animal. In spite of its million lines of code, it still lacks the natural ability to give affection and to love and be loved. And it doesn’t fear death or pain, as it is not aware of being alive.

2018-04-01T12:51:00.000+02:00

big brown beastie, big brown face, I'd rather be with you, than flying through space... Mike Oldfield – On horseback In 2001 – the last year as a single as I did not come to know my wife yet – I went on a group holiday to Costa Rica. It was a very special holiday that I will remember for the rest of my life. One of the dearest memories to me was riding on a horse during this holiday.

When your business case is under fire and your stakeholders don’t listen to you the way they used to do, you can always turn to some old-fashioned fearmongering… thinks the Dutch aviation industry

2018-03-31T16:05:00.001+02:00

It has been the talk of the town during the last year. Lelystad Airport, the new to develop airport in the polder of the “self-built” Dutch province Flevoland was designed to function as an overflow valve for Schiphol Amsterdam Airport, in order to relieve this mainport from its “dreaded”, low-budget charter passengers that bring in too little money and sales. Due to government

Will Cambridge Analytica-gate eventually force Facebook to traverse The Road to Golgotha, in order to be sacrificed for its criminally negligent and brutal behaviour?! I won’t shed a tear about it!

2018-03-30T22:14:00.000+02:00

The success of social media platform Facebook is bedazzling. Over two billion users, of which at least one billion users logs in on a nearly daily basis. And in 2017 alone the company presented sales figures to the tune of €40 billion. Facebook is the glue that binds numerous families and friend networks together and on top of it, it is the main (if not only) supplier of internet at remote

Pamflet: Waarom ik hoop dat u niet op de VVD gaat stemmen bij de Gemeenteraadsverkiezingen van 2018!

2018-03-11T23:46:00.001+01:00

Binnenkort zijn er gemeenteraadsverkiezingen in Nederland. Wat deze verkiezingen in mijn ogen extra bijzonder maakt, is de sterk gepolariseerde situatie waarin Nederland zich nu bevindt. Hoewel de Nederlandse samenleving op straat over het algemeen nog een heel vriendelijke indruk maakt, is het debat – vooral op de sociale media en zelfs in de dagbladen – erg verhard, waarbij wederzijds

Amsterdam taxi drivers are planning an attack on Uber’s headoffice in The Netherlands. Are these taxi drivers the “Dutch Sons of Anarchy”? Or is this in fact a shocking testimony for the moral bankruptcy of a company like Uber?!

2018-03-05T19:22:00.000+01:00

It was perhaps quite shocking, but in fact not really surprising news from the Amsterdam area this morning. According to Dutch newspaper AD, the Amsterdam taxi-drivers are allegedly planning an attack upon the head office of Uber in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The AD discovered a private newsgroup on Telegram with 300 anonymous members, in which the plan was plotted to execute a

What the world needs now… is not a trade war!

2018-03-03T17:08:00.001+01:00

It was something that seemed inevitable from the beginning of the Donald Trump presidency in the United States: a trade war between the United States and the rest of the world. Even though this trade war has not yet started fortunately, the odds for it to happen are quite high. This is because of the respectively 10% and 25% penalty tariff on the imports of foreign aluminium and steel,

The disappearance of the big conglomerates and their large research laboratories marks the current Age of Pennywise, Poundfoolish…

2018-02-27T00:12:00.000+01:00

In the age of shareholder value and pennywise, poundfoolish corporate behaviour…, the disappearance of the so-called ACME companies and their large laboratories for fundamental and targeted research will have a negative influence on human development. Many of their inventions in the fifties and sixties of last century colour our daily lives in the 21st Century. Now that those laboratories have

Two researchers state: “Flex contracts are hampering consumption in The Netherlands”. Subdued development of collective wages might cause the lackluster domestic consumption

2018-02-11T14:30:00.000+01:00

It is one of the recurring themes of this blog: the subdued wage development in The Netherlands and the effects that it has on domestic consumption. It is no secret that the lower and middle classes hardly had any wage increases during the last ten year. It is also no secret that many of the store chains aimed at the middle classes in The Netherlands are going through a hard time

Rabobank now understands once more that “playing international bank successfully” is not without risks. Pt II, the judge strikes back!

2018-02-10T15:23:00.002+01:00

Almost one year ago, I wrote an article upon Rabobank RNA, the Californian branche of the Dutch cooperative bank Rabobank and the fact that it had been involved in a criminal investigation for acts perpetrated via its branches in Calexico and Tecate. Rabobank, a globally operating bank, is the second biggest bank in The Netherlands based upon the size of its balance sheet. Rabobank RNA was

We must make an end to the pharmaceutical cash cows! When the prices of lifesaving drugs smell like extortion, the government and national health insurance system must say ‘No’ to compensation

2018-02-04T16:59:00.001+01:00

It is perhaps the curse of the 21st Century: as a consequence of deeper insight in the human body, better therapeutical techniques and more advanced medicine, it is now possible to cure or slow down diseases that had been a death sentence for their victims until the recent past. Many formerly deadly forms of cancer, auto-immune diseases (“aids”) or muscle degradation diseases can be cured or

“Shitholegate” as the inharmonious epitomy of awkward and unpleasant world politics: Trump barks, but the caravan should move on!

2018-01-20T23:30:00.000+01:00

The air attack warning sounds like… This is the sound. When you hear the air attack warning, you and your family must take cover Frankie goes to Hollywood – Two Tribes Was the writing on the wall last week, when the Hawaiian islands were in shock at the moment that an erroneous warning for an incoming ballistic missile took the islands by surprise?! Especially in the 30 minutes between