tag:www.dutchnews.nl,2012:/features//19 2012-05-16T11:35:10Z Movable Type 3.35 tag:www.dutchnews.nl,2012:/features//19.33179 2012-05-16T11:23:01Z 2012-05-16T11:35:10Z

Editor Fed up with poor bank deposit rates and looking for a way round them? Many people are asking the question; why are bank deposit rates so low?]]> Inflation Inflation in the Euro zone currently runs at around 3%. If you are getting 2% from having your money on deposit, you end up with a -1% net (after inflation) return. If you are liable to Box 3 tax, in The Netherlands, you end up with a -2.2% return. If you had EUR 200,000 on deposit, you would, therefore, be losing around EUR 4,400 a year from your capital in real terms. Compounded over five years, you would lose the equivalent of12% of your original capital or, in monetary terms, EUR 24,000. All of a sudden, leaving money on deposit doesn’t seem quite so low risk after all does it? Is there a solution? Yes, there is. There are many funds and investments you can make use of that work over a time period of 12-60 months offering zero volatility and fixed rates of return. Some of these funds/deposits may be based in areas of the world where interest rates are higher and thus give investors, in other currencies, access to a higher rate of return. Australian funds A good example are funds based in Australia which benefit from higher interest rates, high levels of investor protection and regulation (Australia being one of the toughest financial regulators) and highly stable banking regimes. If you were investing Euros you’d still invest in Euros, however, the fund would have an arrangement to ‘hedge’ the Euro against the Australian Dollar – so no volatility but a potentially higher level of fixed return. So, in short, it is possible to get your savings to work harder for you and produce a better return than simply leaving them to languish on deposit, whilst keeping volatility to a minimum. However, these solutions to wealth management are not so likely to be found on the high street but within the Independent Private Financial Advice arena. If you would like to discuss such investment solutions, AES International offer a no obligation fee-free initial discussion. ]]> tag:www.dutchnews.nl,2012:/features//19.33143 2012-05-14T12:39:18Z 2012-05-14T12:40:37Z

Editor Former Manchester United striker Ruud van Nistelrooy has called time on his career. Van Nistelrooy, 35, has endured a difficult time since joining Malaga from Hamburg last summer, scoring just five times in 32 appearances. http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sport/football/4315453/Former-Manchester-United-striker-Ruud-van-Nistelrooy-has-called-time-on-his-career.html tag:www.dutchnews.nl,2012:/features//19.33125 2012-05-12T12:37:50Z 2012-05-12T12:41:55Z

Hanneke The Dutch open Internet law is 'truly radical', writes Art Brodsky. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-brodsky/going-dutch-a-great-idea_b_1510717.html?ref=technology tag:www.dutchnews.nl,2012:/features//19.33122 2012-05-11T14:19:42Z 2012-05-11T14:22:09Z

Hanneke The Dutch city is pioneering new ways of dealing with water as climate change brings with it heavier rains and rising tides. http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/may/11/water-rotterdam-climate-proof tag:www.dutchnews.nl,2012:/features//19.33121 2012-05-11T14:15:01Z 2012-05-11T14:16:38Z

Hanneke After 65 years, Radio Netherlands Worldwide today ends its broadcasts aimed at Dutch people abroad. From messages for sailors to special programmes for expats - what has Radio Netherlands meant for the Dutch overseas? http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/rnw%E2%80%99s-dutch-language-service-falls-silent tag:www.dutchnews.nl,2012:/features//19.33106 2012-05-10T21:26:10Z 2012-05-11T10:28:20Z

Editor Cult Dutch lingerie label Marlies Dekkers is the go-to purveyor of power underwear and we’re not talking Spanx. Previously a trade secret for those in-the-know, her under the radar status is rapidly diminishing with a newly opened four week pop-up in Harrods. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2142294/Lady-Gagas-favourite-lingerie-designer-Marlies-Dekkers-launches-Harrods.html tag:www.dutchnews.nl,2012:/features//19.33059 2012-05-07T14:08:06Z 2012-05-07T14:08:57Z

Editor When Christianity fades, it doesn't just leave empty pews behind. With each church that shuts, the statues, crucifixes, chalices, paintings or vestments that were part of regular Sunday services suddenly have no liturgical home. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/03/sacred-art-from-dutch-churches-finds-new-use-abroad_n_1473406.html tag:www.dutchnews.nl,2012:/features//19.32995 2012-05-02T13:44:39Z 2012-05-02T13:45:08Z

Editor According to Amsterdam’s tourism board, the canal-crossed Dutch port is one of the most cycle-friendly cities in the world, with a total of 600,000 bikes and 750,000 residents. http://www.bbc.com/travel/blog/20120418-spoking-the-fire-in-amsterdam tag:www.dutchnews.nl,2012:/features//19.32972 2012-05-01T08:36:38Z 2012-05-01T08:37:30Z

Editor In many ways, Roel Voorintholt and Ton Wiggers seem like an old married couple. The two men spend a great deal of each day together. They also live in the same house. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/01/arts/dance/introdans-dance-troupes-long-road-to-the-joyce-theater.html?_r=1 tag:www.dutchnews.nl,2012:/features//19.32897 2012-04-26T07:40:47Z 2012-04-26T07:43:03Z

Hanneke Ten Dutch universities participating at GHEDEX, the international university fair, are hoping that Omani students will flock for their faculty in the Netherlands. http://www.timesofoman.com/echoice.asp?detail=3922 tag:www.dutchnews.nl,2012:/features//19.32890 2012-04-25T09:09:54Z 2012-04-25T09:11:46Z

Hanneke GERMAN CHANCELLOR Angela Merkel held firm to the policy that fiscal rectitude is the answer to Europe’s financial woes as the Dutch political crisis fuelled anxiety about the return of disruption to debt markets. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2012/0425/1224315147027.html tag:www.dutchnews.nl,2012:/features//19.32867 2012-04-24T13:09:11Z 2012-04-24T13:10:23Z

Hanneke The collapse of the fiscally hawkish Dutch government after seven weeks of budget wrangling could be a bigger shock for Europe. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/wall-street-journal/holland-not-hollande-is-europes-latest-worry/story-fnay3x58-1226336758020 tag:www.dutchnews.nl,2012:/features//19.32847 2012-04-23T10:35:59Z 2012-04-23T10:37:41Z

Hanneke French vote, Dutch political problems add to crisis nerves. http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/23/markets-bonds-euro-idUSL5E8FN0OS20120423 tag:www.dutchnews.nl,2012:/features//19.32827 2012-04-21T11:08:08Z 2012-04-21T11:09:06Z

Editor The first English translation of “Amsterdam Stories,” by the Dutch author Nescio (1882-1961), should have a much more vibrant cover. The book’s most enduring effect is of color, as Nescio attempts to do with words what the Impressionists did with paints — to record the play of light on water, the beauties of a sunset. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/books/review/amsterdam-stories-by-nescio.html?_r=1 tag:www.dutchnews.nl,2012:/features//19.32794 2012-04-19T10:51:07Z 2012-04-19T11:15:11Z

Hanneke King Juan Carlos of Spain’s latest tumble landed the monarchy in a great deal of trouble recently. The king had to be flown back post-haste with a broken hip from Botswana where, it turned out, he had been killing elephants for sport. Holiday home shopping crown prince Willem Alexander has learned his lesson and steered clear of Africa and, indeed, elephants, but has he now committed a similar royal blunder in Greece? What the papers say. NRC’s columnist H.J.A Hofland thinks royals should be able to don their bathing suits and splash about in the sea to their heart’s content, just like other mortals. ‘When people point their cameras at them they are not in a position to shout ‘bugger off!’, Hofland writes. And because nobody in this media-ridden age will leave them alone, royals and other celebrities need private holiday homes, Hofland contends. In other words, it’s our own fault for being a nation of snoops. But, says Hofland, with a cabinet that has been taking decisions behind closed door for the last seven weeks while the crisis is ravaging the land, people are getting thoroughly fed up and news about princes buying €4.5m second homes tends not to go down well, and reflects badly on an institution that we need. Cool head ‘I am not a monarchist but I think we should count ourselves lucky that in Beatrix we have a monarch who keeps a cool head. Think of the political hell that would break loose if we had to have presidential elections! The monarchy must stay, and it has to be as stable as possible. That is why the purchase of this holiday home in jet set surroundings was not a very good decision’, Hofland concludes. Both the Volkskrant and NRC went to have a chat with the locals at the ‘Liechtenstein of Greece’, as the unnamed head of the Greek fiscal fraud detection unit calls Kranidi. ‘Corruption is rife. The fiscal fraud team discovered that as many as 170 villas are registered to companies in the Seychelles and the Cayman Islands. They have probably been bought with black money and backhanders’, the paper quotes officials. Lemonade Waiter Alexis Andrikopoulis, whose much humbler house is not far from the villas of Willem Alexander and actor Sean Connery, thinks, like Hofland, that the prince should probably have waited before he bought the house but not quite for the same reason. ‘If he’d waited prices would have dropped even more’, he tells NRC. Apparently, German photographer Manfred Rieker wanted €8m for the house to start with. Things are difficult, even in the Liechtenstein of Greece, the paper writes. Some hope the royals will be good for local business. ‘The prince will surely come and have a lemonade at a bar every once in a while. Even the dust those people leave behind will do us some good’, the Volkskrant quotes local fisherman Keriakos. Meanwhile, Nu.nl reports that according to a Maurice de Hond poll it commissioned 76% of the Dutch population doesn't care what the prince does with his money. 74% think, however, that he, not the state, should pay for his security in Greece. ]]>