Norway the price of "free"

Imagine you've never lived in Norway and you read about all the "free" benefits provided here, you would think "Wow what a great deal, let me move there right away!  Holy crap where have I been living compared to this paradise?!?".  In return you pay in excess of 40-45% taxes up front at the very minimum, and more hidden taxes in other living costs, would that then be a great deal?  What if you paid almost no taxes and then had to pay for everything else?  Would that be a worse off deal?

Norway in deficit

Norway is spending more money than it is bringing in.  The first time in more than 20 years.  Here's the link in Norwegian and the link in English.

What now?  An increase in taxes perhaps?  You can bet every kroner that that's what the government will do sooner or later, citing it for the benefit of all its citizens of course.  If not, well let's just keep drilling for oil.  One thing is for certain, this isn't going to change anytime soon.

Post Brexit

So it looks like Brexit happened and the British will be out of the EU zone in the next two years.  What sort of "exit" this will actually result in remains to be seen.  The pound has fallen off a cliff and looks like it will head to par with the US dollar.  Even so I would rather hold the pound than the Euro.  By the way if you haven't heard about the recent attacks in France, these are all symptoms of Europe breaking apart and along with that, the fall of the Euro.  No political union can last, when the people of Europe all speak different languages and can't stand each other.  The arrival of the refugees has only accelerated the problem.  Thankfully Norway does not hold the Euro, but Norway has its own problems as outlined before.  No the falling pound is not good for those who hold it, but in the longer term the British people will be able to own their own country by being able to write their own laws rather than have some clowns in a foreign land dictating what they can and cannot do.  If you ask me Norway is completely foolish in paying billions to the EU commission in allowing them to trade with the so called single market, yet people in Norway still have to pay additional import taxes when they import items from the EU.

First strike, Brexit.

The Euro will not last and Britain leaving is the beginning of many nails in the coffin for the political currency called the Euro.