We have seen the adverse effect of greed for some time now. Going back to 2004, we saw the moves that financial institutions made, and during those days, and in the aftermath of 2008, we saw how a chosen few walked away with hundreds of millions of dollars, whilst at the same time, leaving flocks of people beyond destitute.
The fact that this is still happening in 2013, gives way to a collection of requirements that seems to be non-considered by too many people who should be in charge of protecting the population. Why do governments remain in a state of enabling this level of unacceptable transgressions?
Let’s take a look at the events that are making my blood pressure dangerously rise (again).
On the 10th January a non-formal claim was made by Dutch businessman, Ronald Ras, related to the “Mosa Trajectum” golf resort near Murcia in southeast Spain. The claim is OVER half a billion dollar. Should this pass through then this bank will require serious levels and financial amounts of support. The bank claims that Mr. Ras owes the bank in excess of 165 million dollars. So this could be all ignored as a simple situation (he states versus they state, you know the legal drill).
The issue that makes this event escalating is that this bank received a billion dollars of aid in 2008 during the height of the financial crisis. This bank is also due to announce its restructuring plan which would scrap a massive amount of jobs (a mention of 750 scrapped jobs was mentioned by UK Reuters). In addition to this, the Dutch bank and insurance group SNS Reaal is considering a so-called “bad bank” option so they can push their bad ‘property idea’s’ into a different bank and bookkeep it out of existence. Shouldn’t people go to jail for ideas like that?
Actually, that is not what this is about, but the background is relevant to all of this.
What is interesting and what is the issue, are the amounts just this one bank requires. If we add only these two issues together, then we get to 1.5 billion dollars (2 out of how many issues?). Compared to the population of the Netherlands, the required assistance comes down to $1000 per citizen. So this one bank needs more funding than the entire population can afford. This is the 4th bank in size and their needs have become a fair size of the national debt. How can this even be allowed? Take into consideration that almost a third of the nation makes less than 20,000 euro’s a year, so their share of $1000, will be more than 20% of the taxes they pay. If you look at those parts, then it is clear that the Netherlands is growing deeper and deeper into a hole that no budget can close.
On the other side you should consider the luxury property issue that someone is trying to get done in another nation. It took me almost a year to get one mortgage deal for $50000 within that country, and then it was only possible with almost impossible conditions and guarantees. This ‘person’ gets hundreds of millions and no one installed a proper legal engine to make sure the bank does not get hurt by some of their decision makers?
How does allowing this even compute? In all fairness, the bank did make the statement that this claim has no foundation. Still, how does it get this far? Perhaps we should take another look at the bank too?
So let’s take a clearer look at the issues one part at a time.
1. Someone has an idea for a real estate project worth gold course and as such he gets the financing arranged.
So this first point means that the bank has drawn up agreements, contracts and set up clear lines of credit, as well as the rights and duties of the person who they are lending the money to.
So if this first point is clear, then there is a clear path, and all what happened today on the news is just hot air, with no foundation (the Bank stated January 10th that there is no foundation for the claim).
2. The people behind all this are setting up a good quality sales team (or they should be), all with clear targets. I need to mention here that these targets should be achievable. Under these conditions there is no excuse for sudden financial breakdowns. As we all know, these breakdowns did not affect many in the financial institutions as they walked away with a golden handshake worth mega millions.
Now here is the first issue. I did some digging into their visibility.
– Their web presence is extremely low, and if there is any that is valid, it is not that visible. THEIR FIRST BIG MISTAKE! I was going over 3 sites, they all showed a lack of professionalism, it is limited in languages (Spanish and English only) and the places they offer are between 1.2 and 1.5 million euro’s. It is interesting that the group who could afford anything like this is less than 0.01% of the Dutch population. So this is an exclusive project that over 99% cannot afford. Now, even if you consider this in European terms. This is a place only less than a handful can afford, and those people rarely all want to live together.
– If we consider this as a pure resort for vacations, renting/leasing a time shared, or just on a hotel based foundation, then this plan calls in even more questions, as there was little or no infrastructure. This reminds me of the tourist approaches we saw during the 90’s. There were loads of what they would call a time share option, most of them went sour and plenty of people got left holding a bag without value.
So if these two points did not call in questions, then look at the next:
I looked at:
– http://mosatrajectum.com/venta/
– http://www.mosatrajectumproperty.com/
These places are all about that project, and I personally find them not that professional (considering the price of the houses), not well conceived, error prone when it comes to the languages and lacking in other ways too. If a faltering sales system is the cause of a failed project then these two links could be regarded as strong indicators that this all failed for many more reasons, not just the economy.
Several of them should be considered as failings of project managers. 1.3 million Euro houses are not realistic. Even before the economic crash it would be unrealistic for many people. It becomes even less interesting when this is all build in a place where there is nothing. I personally see this as the idea of someone seeing their pupils change to euro signs and greed took over (really quickly). Even after the failings of the world economy, this project could have survived if this would have been properly aligned to any kind of realistic market. Yet, even though over the last 2 years the group of Spanish unemployed was OVER 20%, overall spending was down a lot more (not just in Spain), nothing seems to have been done, and now there is a claim? This I deduce from these sites, and searching through several other sites, not making decent mention of this real estate location.
From the data I have now, I would side with the bank, but questions should be asked on all levels. Especially considering America had their Freddie Mac and Fanny Mae issues in 2008, and this plan seems a lot less stable then the huhu idea’s Mac and Mae were having.
So how did the bank fail?
Not sure if call it a fail, but if we look at several of their projects, some that are unaffordable, questions on how these projects are such losses. It is even more important to look at how the numbers are accepted into starting some of these projects to begin with. If some of these places are more decently priced (even considering a minor loss) then it could have drawn prospective buyers and even at a loss, a nation of taxpayers would not be called to pay the bill of over greedy individuals not setting a realistic goal. Consider the Spanish resort example. As the information of the village, even when English is selected most of its information comes in Spanish, I would think the bank, or better its account holder should have kept a better eye on this. This is 100 million plus at the start, so keeping an eye on your investment is always a good idea. If we consider a current projected cost amount of 250,000,000, and divide this by 3100 houses/apartments currently projected, then each house would be less than 100.000. If we consider the costs involved then this solution is a whole new idea.
Should the developers complain? Of course not! They failed, pure and simple. The bank moves in, confiscates the lot and sells as needed. Is that what the developer wants? No! He wants his profit, his ego. It seems to me that for such a reward he should have succeeded. This is not the only project that bares scrutiny. If we consider some of the other building scandals that the Netherlands have faced, then I wonder why these levels of over pricings and overinflated values are not better investigated.
We are looking at a new approach of banks to write of overpricing and bad ideas. Why push this to the taxpayers? These groups are getting too much protection all over the place. The Netherlands are just one example. The US example of Freddie Mac and Fannie May are even more unacceptable.
Lawrence van Rijn - Law Lord to be 