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Going once, going twice, given away!

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So the deal between ABN AMRO and Barclay has finalized. €67 billion looks like a lot of money, and it is of course. But the price that is being paid for this ‘merger’ is way to high.
This is not a merger but a sell out. If you look at what ABN AMRO is getting out of this deal, that is nothing. The brand ABN AMRO will probably exists for a couple of years but the remainder of the company will be stripped. The new CEO is from Barclay but the headquarter will move to Amsterdam. That is most likely a move for one or two years because everybody knows that London is the financial place to be.
23.000 people are losing their job just to satisfy the short term needs of some ‘investors’. An economist in the Netherlands wrote; ‘hedge funds should be banned because their business has nothing do with running companies in a social and economical responsible manor’.
I agree.

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Bidding war over ABN AMRO

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ABN AMRO

Another company being ruined by pure and simple greed. The link with Barclays is something what I can understand because the markets the two operate in are different and complementary.
The link with the three other firms does not make any sense other that they can do it and it means one more competitor less, but they are not out of the hot water because ABN AMRO devided into three is not that significant.

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PvdA in hot water

The PvdA is in hot waters after the elections and after their decition to take part in the new Government with the CDA and CU. Part of the problem is the SP and the other part are the overrated expectation of the party members and the public.

The public (the voters) expect instant change and expect that any ellection promise will be filled in. The PvdA is part of a coalition and that means that vou always get what you want. The SP is doing well in this situation, they walked out of the negotiation to take part in the government, they can bash the PvdA about the promises they make during the elections and get away with their support of Geert Wilders around the double nationality issue.

The PvdA party members want Bos to either to drop his function of partyleader or get out of the government. I think he should stay where he is and get to work. The party members should focus on how to win back the voters and shut up.

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Posted on

I drumped Norton

Afer the last update of Norton Internet Security software I couldn’t send  and receiveany email anymore. That was not the first time this happened.

After some hours of trying to get to work I decided to dump to product and move to McAfee. Happely I had just 28 days left on my Norton 2006 before it expired.

 

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Posted on

Marijnissen makes a U-Turn

One month after the discussion in Dutch parliament about the double nationality of members of the Dutch Government, Jan Marijnissen of the SP makes an U-Turn. In the discussion in Dutch Parliament he didn’t agree with the remarks made and questions raised by the party of Geert Wilders. Now he says he thinks the members of the Government with a double nationality should drop their second nationality but that he doesn’t questions the loyalty of the persons in question. He actually agrees with Geert Wilders now.
Why didn’t he made the remark earlier? Because he didn’t want to be seen agreeing with Geert Wilders in Parliament. This shows two things:

  1. Open discussions are not possible in Dutch Parliament because certain parties are actively being ignored and silenced,
  2. Dutch parliament is still afraid of addressing the sensitive questions around immigration and integration.
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Wag his tail

How does your dog wag his tail? Research has shown that dogs wag their tail to the right if it meets someone it knowns. To the left if it meets somebody it doesn’t know.