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I'm surprised anyone is surprised. Here in the US we've spent several trillion dollars on Covid relief so far, and there's more to come. When you're dealing w

I'm surprised anyone is surprised. Here in the US we've spent several trillion dollars on Covid relief so far, and there's more to come. When you're dealing with a torrent of printed cash of this magnitude, there's of course going to be a lot of it that ends up in the wrong hands for the wrong reasons.

TheRealPomax 5y ago
No one would be surprised if this was about the US, but it's that "euro" symbol that makes it surprising.
- dalbasal 5y ago
  Is it? European/Dutch & US rhetoric can be quite different... but the actual policies are not, at least not in a sense relevant to this issue. In fact, the US cut people a bigger piece of the covid relief money than did most european countries.
  - e17 5y ago
    The US has even sent like $3k straight into the accounts of every citizen over the course of the pandemic! As far as I'm aware no other major country has done helicopter money like thia
    - tick_tock_tick 5y ago
      Much more than that if you were unemployed.
    - julienb_sea 5y ago
      The US money only went to households making below a certain threshold. Most other countries dumped heavily into their unemployment programs, sometimes funding full salaries for up to a fourth of the country over what is now looking like a 24 month period of time (see France).
    - icoder 5y ago
      Here that would take care of your health insurance for 2+ years (basically covering your health care for that time regardless of any misfortune that comes your way), or more than half a year of (University) tuition. In US? Probably not so much. Taking into account other welfare benefits, minimum wages, etc would also be interesting. All I'm saying is to me it doesn't make sense to just look at that 3k and compare it to all other major countries without context.
      - dalbasal 5y ago
        IMO, that's whataboutism. The topic at hand is "we are dumping money into the economy, how to do it." The curious point is that "give it to people" is an exceedingly rare solution. The primary recipients are banks (2009), large firms... occasionally public works and small businesses. This was the case in europe and the US, but this time, unusually, a portion of the whole did go to people. In the EU, none did. It wasn't even considered. The way health or education work is another matter, and it is not a decision Dutch parliamentarians of the current generation made.
  - TheRealPomax 5y ago
    Yes, it is, because you constantly hear about dollars, and rarely hear about euros, in the bubbles that hacker news readers live in.
- typon 5y ago
  Neoliberalism is the hegemonic force in the world - Europe is no exception.
- renewiltord 5y ago
  The difference between European and American corruption is that the former has an ally in a population that purposefully ignores evidence of the existence of any corruption because it would hurt the sense of national pride.
- nielsbot 5y ago
  The execs who benefited are US-based: "As a result, the total remuneration for the three-member U.S. board of parent company Booking Holdings last year converted to more than 28 million euros. Some 5.8 million euros in shares and cash went to CEO Glenn Fogel, and 2.8 million euros went to Peter Millones, the vice president. Nearly 20 million euros, mostly in shares, went to CFO David Goulden, according to company documents reviewed by NRC. The company was concerned they could otherwise lose the three top executives." Also, LMAO at "concerned they could otherwise lose the three top executives." They always use that excuse to plunder. Meanwhile "Fixed salaries of the management in Amsterdam headquarters were however cut by 20 percent"
  - jiofih 5y ago
    And employees’ bonus were reduced due to a hard year. And there were layoffs.
vmception 5y ago
The most surprising thing here is how egregious it is. Like everyone in these positions or studies this area knows there is no accountability on these, but they don't usually do it. Outside of these circles I've definitely heard people assume there were greater stipulations on state funding or even bond issuances in the fixed-income market, and want to argue that with me mostly given the lack of evidence of executives taking advantage of it for personal gain. This one is shocking because they actually did.
jimbob45 5y ago
>there’s more to come ??? How do you figure? There’s an infrastructure investment bill in the works which hopefully doesn’t pass if the Democrats get to write it. I certainly haven’t heard of any more COVID relief bills in the works though.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

TheRealPomax 5y ago

No one would be surprised if this was about the US, but it's that "euro" symbol that makes it surprising.

dalbasal 5y ago
Is it? European/Dutch & US rhetoric can be quite different... but the actual policies are not, at least not in a sense relevant to this issue. In fact, the US cut people a bigger piece of the covid relief money than did most european countries.
- e17 5y ago
  The US has even sent like $3k straight into the accounts of every citizen over the course of the pandemic! As far as I'm aware no other major country has done helicopter money like thia
  - tick_tock_tick 5y ago
    Much more than that if you were unemployed.
  - julienb_sea 5y ago
    The US money only went to households making below a certain threshold. Most other countries dumped heavily into their unemployment programs, sometimes funding full salaries for up to a fourth of the country over what is now looking like a 24 month period of time (see France).
  - icoder 5y ago
    Here that would take care of your health insurance for 2+ years (basically covering your health care for that time regardless of any misfortune that comes your way), or more than half a year of (University) tuition. In US? Probably not so much. Taking into account other welfare benefits, minimum wages, etc would also be interesting. All I'm saying is to me it doesn't make sense to just look at that 3k and compare it to all other major countries without context.
    - dalbasal 5y ago
      IMO, that's whataboutism. The topic at hand is "we are dumping money into the economy, how to do it." The curious point is that "give it to people" is an exceedingly rare solution. The primary recipients are banks (2009), large firms... occasionally public works and small businesses. This was the case in europe and the US, but this time, unusually, a portion of the whole did go to people. In the EU, none did. It wasn't even considered. The way health or education work is another matter, and it is not a decision Dutch parliamentarians of the current generation made.
- TheRealPomax 5y ago
  Yes, it is, because you constantly hear about dollars, and rarely hear about euros, in the bubbles that hacker news readers live in.
typon 5y ago
Neoliberalism is the hegemonic force in the world - Europe is no exception.
renewiltord 5y ago
The difference between European and American corruption is that the former has an ally in a population that purposefully ignores evidence of the existence of any corruption because it would hurt the sense of national pride.
nielsbot 5y ago
The execs who benefited are US-based: "As a result, the total remuneration for the three-member U.S. board of parent company Booking Holdings last year converted to more than 28 million euros. Some 5.8 million euros in shares and cash went to CEO Glenn Fogel, and 2.8 million euros went to Peter Millones, the vice president. Nearly 20 million euros, mostly in shares, went to CFO David Goulden, according to company documents reviewed by NRC. The company was concerned they could otherwise lose the three top executives." Also, LMAO at "concerned they could otherwise lose the three top executives." They always use that excuse to plunder. Meanwhile "Fixed salaries of the management in Amsterdam headquarters were however cut by 20 percent"
- jiofih 5y ago
  And employees’ bonus were reduced due to a hard year. And there were layoffs.

vmception 5y ago

The most surprising thing here is how egregious it is. Like everyone in these positions or studies this area knows there is no accountability on these, but they don't usually do it. Outside of these circles I've definitely heard people assume there were greater stipulations on state funding or even bond issuances in the fixed-income market, and want to argue that with me mostly given the lack of evidence of executives taking advantage of it for personal gain. This one is shocking because they actually did.

jimbob45 5y ago

>there’s more to come ??? How do you figure? There’s an infrastructure investment bill in the works which hopefully doesn’t pass if the Democrats get to write it. I certainly haven’t heard of any more COVID relief bills in the works though.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]