Money is the common thread linking the stories on the front pages of this morning's Dutch dailies; unfortunately the other common thread is not having enough of it. The repercussions from the economic crisis are still being felt across the globe and in people's wallets. The chilly winds of recession are blowing and people seem fearful. The future is suddenly uncertain and people are saving for a rainy day. NRC.next writes that deposits into savings accounts in the Netherlands increased by 60 percent over the first five months of this year; people seem to be expecting that rainy day to come soon.

Icesave agreement in jeopardy
Severe financial weather seems to be edging closer for the Dutch government according to an article on the front page of this morning's de Volkskrant. Under the headline "Icesave agreement in jeopardy," the left-wing daily writes that Iceland's parliament is threatening to veto the agreement between the Netherlands and Iceland over repaying the millions that Dutch account holders lost when the Icelandic internet savings bank Icesave went bankrupt last October.

Under the terms of the deal, the Icelandic government agreed to repay the money but as the country was drowning in debt, The Hague lent Reykjavik 1.3 billion euros so it could make the repayments. However, the agreement was provisional and Iceland's parliament, the Althingi, had to approve the agreement.

According to de Volkskrant, that agreement is now sailing into in rough waters because a slim majority in the Althingi is opposed to the deal. The opposition claims the entire Icelandic banking sector collapsed because the Dutch and British governments declared Icesave's parent company Landsbanki financially unsound. As the left-wing paper rightly notes, "this could be very bad news indeed for Dutch Finance minister Wouter Bos".

Single people discriminated against by Dutch cabinet
Several papers cover a report by the Foundation for the Individual and Society (CISA), which says the current government, with its emphasis on families, is discriminating against single people. De Volkskrant headlines, "single people out of luck with this family-cabinet" while AD puts it in simpler terms, "singles discriminated against".

Both papers report that Statistics Netherlands (CBS) on Monday predicted that the number of single people in the Netherlands is expected to rise dramatically over the next 40 years and will represent 50 percent of the population in 2050. At the moment, 30 percent of the Dutch population are single and live alone.

De Volkskrant says both the CBS and the CISA have called on the government to take action to relieve the legal inequality between married and single people. According to AD, single people contribute a high percentage of their income towards insurance and welfare payments to single people are too low. De Volkskrant writes that being single is far more expensive and the legal inequalities range from lower welfare payments and rent subsidies to higher municipal taxes and tax breaks for married couples that singles are ineligible for.

The left-wing paper interviews CISA chair Lenie De Zwaan who says, "Single people are seriously disadvantaged by this cabinet," and she deplores the fact that there is a youth and family ministry, "by laying such a heavy emphasis on one particular lifestyle, you automatically disadvantage and disqualify other lifestyles".

GreenLeft: subsidise mini-windmills
De Telegraaf reports that the GreenLeft party has come up with a way to save the environment and save everybody money: the party has called on the government to make it easier for people to put a mini windmill on the roof so they can generate their own electricity. Under the headline, "GreenLeft in a spin" the populist broadsheet says the GreenLeft has called on the government to abolish the tangled web of rules and regulations governing subsidies for mini windmills.

According to De Telegraaf, the GreenLeft party says there are just 300 mini windmills in use in the country at the moment but if it was easier to apply for a subsidy and a licence, the number of mini windmills could dramatically increase and provide work for 260 people and environmentally friendly-electricity for 10,000 households.

Fewer tourists in the Netherlands
If preliminary figures released by the Netherlands Board of Tourism and Conventions (NBTC) are anything to go by, the chilly winds of recession are whistling through the Dutch tourist industry. "Steady reduction in number of tourists visiting the Netherlands" headlines AD, above rather grim news that there were 15 percent fewer tourists visiting the Netherlands in the first quarter of this year. An NBTC spokesperson tells the paper, "we have seen a dramatic drop in the number of tourists visiting the Netherlands since last year".

Bad news from the NBTC comes hard on the heels of worse news from Statistics Netherlands (CBS). AD writes that the most recent CBS computation reveals that spending by foreign tourists dropped by 17 percent during the first three months of 2009, falling to just one billion euros. More bad news for Finance Minister Wouter Bos.

Nijmegen four-day march puts its best foot forward
The International Four-Day Marches in Nijmegen kicked off early this morning and several papers print photos of people getting ready to take part; they all look fresh and clean and cheerful. I'm sure tomorrow's papers will print photos of people struggling over the finish line after walking for 30, 40 or 50 kilometres and they will be neither fresh nor clean but tired and sweaty.

De Telegraaf prints a photo of a meeting between the oldest and youngest participants in the 93rd edition of the four-day walking event: 87-year-old Mar Smit is pictured with two 11-year-olds. She tells them, "listen boys, the Nijmegen March is the best thing in the world, if you do it once, you'll be hooked for life". She should know, so far she has racked up 42,000 kilometres in the Nijmegen walking event.