John Malone dominated the U.S. cable-TV industry as CEO of TCI. But the European TV market is different. Endemol doesn’t work with a single pay-TV provider in the Netherlands.

Monopolist. Bully. Cowboy. John Malone has heard it all before. As he dominated the U.S. cable-TV industry for much of the past three decades, the CEO of Denver-based TeleCommunications Inc. (TCI) was called plenty of names, including some that can’t be printed here.

Skeptics said he was naive to think…

On Jan. 1 twelve nations switched to one currency. Some 200 Dutch post offices kept their doors closed on the morning of Jan. 2 because the postal bank was not ready for the transition.

In Europe, old fears about Y2K returned as 2K2 loomed. Jan. 1 was the date for the 12-nation switch to one currency, and in the hours leading up to it, there were nightmare scenarios about riots and self-destructing cash machines as lire, francs, guilders, pesetas and deutsche marks were converted…

The Dutch official unemployment rate of 4% is the lowest in the E.U. But jobless people over the age of 57½ are not counted as unemployed; neither are almost 1 mil. on disability benefits.

Since the age of steam, the European labor movement has mustered red flags and brass bands on May Day for a traditional show of strength. But this year, post-May Day, Europe faces a labor paradox that Karl Marx never foresaw. While 15 million people are registered as unemployed in the…

In the NL. recipients have to pay income tax on stock options as soon as they are bestowed. But intense competition from option-rich firms abroad are starting to change that climate.

To Juan Villalonga, the arrangement must have seemed fair enough. Shortly after taking over as head of the Spanish telecommunications firm Telefonica in February 1997, he awarded the company’s 100 top executives–including himself–a bushel of potentially lucrative stock options that could be cashed out after three years. With…

Many union officials are optimistic about the future of organized labor. Typical of that attitude is Wim Kok, leader of the Netherlands Trade Union Confederation.

At 9 a.m. last Tuesday, 2,000 men marched through the black tarmac streets of Grimethorpe (pop. 5,237), a proud coal-mining town in the north of England. Led by the Grimethorpe Colliery Brass Band, in blue blazers with shiny brass buttons, the marchers filed past rows of two-story red brick houses…

Increasing fears confiscatory tax policies already have begun to discourage incentive and innovation. They seem to be undermining the Calvinist work ethic in The Netherlands.

It began as an outcry against “the dark satanic mills” of early capitalism, a shuddering reaction against the profound upheavals caused by the Industrial Revolution, a reassertion of the Utopian dream of the heavenly kingdom on earth. It sprang from obscure clubs, from workers’ associations, from garrets, libraries, bourgeois parlors…

40 chief executives of leading European and American business and banking firms assembled in the Brussels for a colloquy on their common concerns, among them: Philips and Shell.

THE best way to solve problems is to foresee them before they become problems.” Those words from Dr. Joachim Zahn, chairman of the executive board of West Germany’s Daimler-Benz, expressed as well as any the sense of an unusual meeting in Brussels this month. Nearly 40 chief executives of leading…

In The Netherlands, prices are rising at an annual average of 7%. The government resigned last June after failing to check prices, and it scheduled an election for next month.

Americans who complain about the high cost of living can take some solace by looking at Western Europe. There, prices are rising almost twice as fast as in the U.S. Like a pernicious plague, inflation infests the whole Continent; it is damaging living standards and shaking governments. The annual rate…

European CEOs from companies like Philips, Shell and Heineken talk about Japan and President Nixon’s new economic program and its impact on other countries.

View of America: Down and Out or Up and Punching?

On Aug. 14, the U.S. was a world champion boxer taking punishment in the corner of the ring. On Aug. 15, by one movement, it had gained the middle of the ring and room for maneuver —a true heavyweight able…

The Netherlands’ economists forecast for this year is a rise in unemployment, a lower yield on invested capital, a drop in investments and a worsening balance of payments.

In much of the industrialized world, unease is growing among people who have mostly prospered since they pulled themselves from the rubble of World War II. European and Japanese headlines tell of inflation, layoffs, strikes, bankruptcies—and economic slowdowns. Businessmen abroad are hearing that well-worn aphorism: When the U.S. sneezes,…

Along with other countries, the Netherlands have been forced to impose price freezes. Introduction of the value-added tax, a complex form of sales tax, helped to push inflation.

France, The Netherlands and Denmark have been forced to impose price freezes on nearly every variety of goods and services sold within their borders. All three countries, along with West Germany, Italy, Belgium and Sweden, have recently raised bank interest rates (some of them several times) in an effort to…

Common Market experience has accustomed many U.S. manufacturers to a “multinational” outlook. In a list of the biggest U.S. investments per country, the Netherlands ranks second.

WESTERN EUROPE

The most important development in international trade for a generation has been the flow of U.S. corporate capital to Europe. From $1.7 billion in 1950, it grew last year to $20 billion. The cash has not only fueled much of the postwar European boom but has created controversy…

At Rotterdam’s Europoort, with there massive oil refineries, deepened the port’s sea channel to accommodate larger tankers.

THE NETHERLANDS

Although Middle East oil production is near its prewar level, the refineries of Western Europe will continue to feel the pinch for some time to come. Reason: until the Suez Canal is un plugged, oil tankers must take a two-week detour around the Cape of Good Hope. At…

Sukarno was removed by Suharto. He must clean up the incredible economic mess that Sukarno has made of Indonesia. As a Dutch colony Indonesia supplied the world with its riches.

At long last, after months of delays and confusion, Indonesia’s Sukarno was removed as his country’s chief of state. The People’s Consultative Congress, Indonesia’s highest legislative body, stripped him of his presidential powers and turned them over to General Suhar to, the strongman who already exercised them in fact.

Indonesia…

Because of sharp inflation and a mounting balance-of-payments deficit, the central bank has introduced hardfisted monetary policies. The result: the economy is cooling off considerably.

Throughout its remarkable postwar prosperity, Western Europe has reacted fast to fight inflation. Lately, it may have overreacted: with country after country splashing cold water on overheated economies, icicles have started forming. After clipping along at a 5.6% pace in 1964, the Continent’s overall economic growth rate dropped to 4%…