Fucking rich coming from the man who allowed the takeover of ABN-Amro which laid bare the weaknesses of the overextended Dutch banking system. When he had the opportunity to do something to stop the rot, he declined to take action. What’s more, even now he may say he wants smaller banks, but the takeover of ABN-Amro by Fortis is still going ahead. Surely that would be the first thing to stop if he really meant what he said?
The problem with Wouter Bos is that he’s a product of the same system he supposedly wants to reform, a minister for a social democratic party who before he went into politics fulltime worked for decades at Shell in various management and consultant positions. Of course any social democratic principles his party adhered to had been long ago been abandonded under the previous party leaders, most notably Wim Kok, who had urged his members to “let go of the social democratic plumage” (prompting the Socialist Party to later remark that “it can get cold without feathers”). Other than some platitudes about “equal opportunities” and the like the PvdA has long since resigned itself to the status quo and in time has become just as much a supporter of it as the liberal or christian-democratic parties. It is therefore not suprising that despite their presence in the current Dutch government, it is ill-suited to handle the crisis. there has been some tough talka bout bankers taking their responsibilities and anger about their bonuses, but any real measures to radically change the system are not even considered. It’s subsidies for banks, some halfhearted measures to alleviate the pain in other sectors and budget cuts or tax hikes for everything else.