>I had no idea - amazing

I did not either... I was/am flabbergassed with this article.

>http://www.marketwatch.com/story/stodgy-netherlands-is-nation-thatll-blow-up-euro-2013-05-08

Just 2 days ago our bureau of statistics have claimed that the Netherlands is the 2nd best welfaring nation in europe (after luxembourgh). More over, our government debt is only about 75% of GDP and less than countries like Belgium or Germany.

If you take into account the 1.2 trillion euro of pension reserve: They can pay off the government debt twice.


Where this is comming from is (virtual) consumer debt, which is high because of the falling prices of real estate. Though concerning, as long a people are paying off their mortages, this is not a real problem to the economy. I truly fail to see what this has to do with the euro... Prices of the real estate were to high for more than a decade and we are now seeing a correction of that as we did in the 1980's. The EU and the euro have nothing to do with this.


The problem of unemployment is indirectly induced by the real estate bubble, as lots of people working in construction have lost their jobs. Yes that is a problem, but that will recover in time as it did in the 1980's

The Netherlands are a founding member of the EGG, later the EG and now the EU. They would be about the last one leaving the EU or Euro. The Netherlands has a huge export industry and cannot afford leaving the euro and the EU. It will lose its prominent position on this if it would do that.

So IMO, this article is totally bogus.