opinions
Arne O. Holm comments:
That Feeling When You Have the State Budget Your Pocket - Anything is Possible
Commentary: There was a time when the Norwegian Parliament adopted a state budget and moved on. Today, politicians run around with their own state budgets in their pockets. It is an international trend, not a uniquely Norwegian phenomenon.
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This is a comment written by a member of the editorial staff. All views expressed are the writer's own.
However, oil and gas revenues allow Norway to stretch the limits much further than any other nation.
As long as the Russian-American-created energy crisis continues, we are also able to torpedo economic laws.
Statistics and feelings
We are having our cake, but growth in the war economy means that we get to eat it too.
I thought about this when I recently watched a debate on NRK TV, with politicians on one side of the table and economists of various persuasions on the other.
The economists tentatively referred to economic statistics showing that things were not too bad in Norway, despite high interest rates. But low unemployment, perhaps the welfare state's foremost hallmark, pushes both inflation and interest rates up.
A private-practice juggling act with public finances.
The opposite of Sweden, with which we often compare ourselves. There, unemployment is high and rising, and interest rates are consequently low.
On the other side of the table were parties that are steadily moving closer together: the Centre Party and the Progress Party, as well as the Red Party.
Here, it was not statistics but the feeling that it is difficult to be Norwegian that was decisive for the argument.
May be right
Both may be right, depending on whether one places emphasis on the “feeling” that a small minority are worse off, or on statistics showing that most people have more money to spend, even after taking high fuel prices into account.
In practical economic policy, this in turn leads to different solutions.
The latter political direction, described here through an economic lens, generally seeks long-term solutions through broad political support. The defence agreement is, at least for the time being, an example of such a solution.
The ongoing work on a broad political tax agreement could, and I stress could, become another example.
At the other end is the feeling that things are going badly. Here, fresh and revised state budgets continually appear from the back pockets of certain elected representatives. A private-practice juggling act with public finances, where funding and consequences for the rest of society are disruptive elements, without preventing them from fixing every economic consequence of, for example, war.
That such proposals rarely, if ever, undergo a reality check regarding the band aids stuck on the wounds is irrelevant as long as they attract attention.
More TV drama
Another TV drama is currently playing out on several channels.
The Storting's most pointless reality show.
The Epstein files and an alleged unhealthy culture in the Norwegian foreign service have found their way into the Norwegian Parliament's, the Storting, Standing Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs.
Having followed the hearings on TV, I would argue that this is one of the most wasted reality shows ever broadcast from the Storting.
Yes, I know this is serious. But firstly, the committee hearing is not about the most serious allegations: abuse and rape of young girls.
Secondly, a commission of inquiry has already been appointed to investigate the matter. The commission is to investigate the matter for many years.
When the commission’s findings are available, it will be appropriate to hold a hearing in the committee. At the very least, the committee’s members might then have been able to ask questions. That was largely absent during the two-day hearing now behind us.
White silk ties
The committee chair, the Progress Party’s Per Willy Amundsen, did not even hit the target when, with a pompous expression, he lectured those summoned to the hearing. He understood that it was both uncomfortable and demanding, yet nonetheless absolutely necessary.
It is just a shame that the same committee chair was entirely incapable of asking questions. They were neither uncomfortable nor demanding.
They were not even relevant to the seriousness of the matter.
But with a budget in his back pocket and white silk ties, there is no shortage of attention.
