1 september 2015
Common Sense: Boycott Holland
The cause of the economic crisis lies in democracy. Our governments obstruct economic co-ordination. Next to "Greek statistics" there is censorship of economic science in Holland. Our democracy relies on the checks and balances of the Executive, Legislative and Judiciary branches of government. These allow too much room for politicians to manipulate information. The solution is an Economic Supreme Court (ESC) based in science. European countries do not have to transfer sovereignty to Brussels but politicians have to transfer power to their national ESC. The current problems in finance, banking and national debt are only symptoms. The underlying economic problem is stagflation, i.e. a dismal combination of unemployment and inflation. In 1980-2007 governments tried to solve stagflation by deregulating (financial) markets. With new regulations the underlying stagflation rears its ugly head again. The author was at the Dutch Central Planning Bureau in 1982-1991 where his analysis met with censorship. After 20 years of protest it is advisable to boycott Holland.