Economist: I wish the Netherlands could take an example from the UK

In England, thanks to the new finance minister, relations are beginning to recover, but it is not yet possible to say whether peace will return, according to Arnaud Butt of the University of Amsterdam, professor of project finance and financial markets. Looks like it’s stabilization week.

He is already talking about “normalization week”, in which he compares the appointment of Jeremy Hunt to Britain’s Treasury as “bringing in a kind of Johann Remix”. This is what Volkskrant writes. He will do what has to be done with economic policy in great calm. You have to indicate what your plans are, you have to indicate how you handle income and expenses and you have to indicate what you do today and tomorrow.

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However, Boot does not believe Hunt will reverse the full package of financial measures of his predecessor, Kwasi Quarting. It will be more accurate. “Because of some weird procedure, everyone thinks the package is nonsense, but there are also things that make sense in it,” says Butt. For example, this relates to investments in infrastructure. Hunt will make politics as it should be as a politician, and we hope to take an example from We Holland.

How not to do that

According to Boot, the Netherlands can take an example from the UK when it comes to what not to do. “We’ve seen it over the past few weeks. And from now on we can see how it should be done. It points to the mutual struggle between government policy and central banks. This is the side effect, the collateral damage. But it’s actually gigantic.”

Butt says central banks are needed as sane, independent institutions that depend on support. They are establishments that have a certain reputation that we can rely on, but they really put the brakes on. Just to control this inflation. But at the same time – as in England and Holland – an unimaginable amount of money is being spent by governments without even thinking about coverage, central bank policy gets in the way.

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The preamble continues: “Because the politicians don’t want to admit it, at first they are going to throw mud at the central banks. So in the end there are losers on both sides, from which the country or the inhabitant really bears the brunt.