Kabir Mulchandani is a hands-on developer. While he may not be laying bricks, the SKAI Holdings CEO forwent his air-conditioned office in Downtown Dubai for an often stinking hot construction site on the Palm Jumeirah for the two years that it took for his flagship $1.2 billion hotel to be built. It was only in November that he finally walked offsite when the Viceroy Dubai Palm Jumeirah […]
“Comeback is a good word, man,” noted the actor Mickey Rourke, after portraying a washed-up wrestler led to a career renaissance. Could 2017 be the year when stockpickers can say the same thing? The post-financial crisis environment has been unkind to active investing, especially in equities, with most portfolio managers unable to beat their benchmarks even before costs. That has accelerated the seismic investor shift towards cheap, […]
At the end of the Bush administration, I hated the republicans. George was such a fucking idiot, alongside the tea party retards. I viewed Obama as a welcomed respite. In hindsight, I probably voted for Obama to prove that I wasn’t some sort of redneck racist. The Obama administration was very good for stocks — maybe the best ever. But at what cost? The national debt has […]
By Kevin Yao and Elias Glenn | BEIJING BEIJING China’s economy grew a faster-than-expected 6.8 percent in the fourth quarter, boosted by higher government spending and record bank lending, giving it a solid tailwind heading into what is expected to be a turbulent 2017. But Beijing’s decision to raise spending to meet its official growth target could exact a high price, as policymakers grapple with financial risks […]
When it comes to bare-knuckle political lobbying, 12-year-old Claudia Conway is a chip off the old block. Today her mother, Kellyanne Conway, the Republican pollster credited with turning round Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, will be celebrating her 50th birthday at the inauguration of the 45th President of the United States. As his special counsellor, Conway is looking forward to life as the most powerful woman in the […]
Donald Trump vowed to make America “greater than ever before” as he stood framed by Washington’s Lincoln Memorial and addressed a crowd of supporters on the eve of his inauguration as the 45th president of the United States. “It’s a movement like we’ve never seen anywhere in the world,” the former property developer and reality television star declared before fireworks lit up the sky above the National Mall […]
Many worry it would only set off new fighting with the Palestinians as well as the rest of the Arab world, a big price tag for a symbolic change that would hardly move the ball on the broader conflict. Continue reading the main story “I don’t know what’s in it for Trump,” said Akiva Eldar, a longtime Israeli columnist and co-author of a book on the issue […]
DUBAI/BEIRUT: Iran’s government and entities close to the elite Revolutionary Guards have signed major economic contracts with Syria, reaping what appear to be lucrative rewards for helping President Bashar Assad regain control of parts of his country from rebels.An opposition group condemned the telecommunications and mining deals signed with Iran, Damascus’s main regional ally, as “looting” of the Syrian people and the country’s wealth by the “Iranian […]
An extraordinary moment has arrived in the evolution of the internet. For all the transformation that has occurred over the 20+ years since the arrival of the World Wide Web and for the billions of people whose economic, civic and social circumstances have been improved, most people remain without internet connections. Residing in every country, these unconnected billions still wait for affordable meaningful access to this essential […]
Investor optimism faded in the week preceding the inauguration of Donald Trump as US president, with equity funds suffering their largest outflows since the surprise result of November’s election. Close to $2.5bn fled US equity funds in the week ending Wednesday, according to data from EPFR Global, extending outflows of $250m from the prior week and demonstrating that the investor demand that drove more than $60bn of […]
PALO ALTO, Calif. With monetary policy still modestly accommodative, the U.S. central bank should continue to raise interest rates slowly to keep jobs plentiful and inflation low, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said on Thursday. “I think that allowing the economy to run markedly and persistently “hot” would be risky and unwise,” Yellen said in remarks prepared for delivery to the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. […]
19th January 2017 Profile Software, an international financial solutions provider, today announced its sponsorship of the Middle East Wealth Management Forum organized by Hubbis, taking place on the 24th of January at the Ritz Carlton, DIFC in Dubai, UAE. Profile’s executives will demonstrate the client centric and innovative platforms that address the Wealth Management industry’s requirements. Profile supports thought provoking industry leading events for the Wealth Management […]
Submitted by Peter Schiff via Euro Pacific Capital, There is much we don’t know about how the Trump presidency will play out. Will the Wall get built? Who will pay for it? Will it have at least some fencing? Will repeal and replace happen at exactly the same time? Will Trump throw a ceremonial switch? Will there be a Trump National Golf Course in Sochi? It’s anyone’s […]
Puerto Rico and its creditors have returned to the bargaining table this week as newly-elected governor Ricardo Rosselló seeks to reset negotiations after an acrimonious two years between the island and its bondholders. Mr Rosselló, who was elected in November last year to the US territory’s highest public office, said in an interview with the Financial Times on Thursday that he wanted to take a “philosophical shift” […]
5936 25 by Shannon K. O’Neil January 18, 2017 A dye factory worker suns fabric after washing them in Narayanganj near Dhaka, Bangladesh, December 25, 2016 (Reuters/Mohammad Ponir Hossain). In late December, tens of thousands of Bangladeshi garment workers went on strike, shutting down over fifty factories making fast-fashion clothes for international brands including Gap, H&M, and Zara. What started as a walkout in support of 121 […]
WASHINGTON President-elect Donald Trump’s spokesman said on Thursday there will be an announcement on whether the United States will move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. “Stay tuned,” incoming White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters, asked about the issue at a briefing the day before Trump takes office. “There’ll be a further announcement on that.” While campaigning for the presidency, Trump pledged to switch the […]
The Bank of England’s corporate bond buying plan has moved much faster than investors expected with the central bank surpassing half of its total target just five months after the programme was launched. Started in September as part of the central bank’s plan to cushion the economy from any fallout from the Brexit vote, the programme has seen the BoE buy £5.2bn of corporate bonds, according to […]
Steven Mnuchin, Donald Trump’s nominee to be Treasury secretary, clashed with Democrats over the business practices of the lender he once chaired, saying he had been wrongly accused of taking advantage of unfortunate borrowers and that he would work “tirelessly” to boost the economy and US hiring. The former banker told the Senate finance committee that he had been maligned and that OneWest, the bank, had extended 100,000 […]
By Isabel Coles | MOSUL, Iraq MOSUL, Iraq Most Islamic State (IS) commanders in Mosul have been killed in battles with Iraqi government forces that raged over the past three months in the eastern side of the city, an Iraqi general said on Thursday. The fight to take the western side of Mosul, which remains under the jihadists’ control, should not be more difficult than the one […]
Brussels is seeking to defuse a regulatory time-bomb facing Europe’s pensions as the retirement industry warns that EU derivatives reforms scheduled for 2018 could cost savers billions. The European Commission is preparing legislation to amend regulations that are seen hurting pensions funds by forcing them to put aside higher amounts of money to satisfy derivatives rules. Trades such as swaps and other derivatives require support in the […]
By Anjuli Davies and Andrew MacAskill | LONDON LONDON Global banks have begun signaling how they will put plans into action to cope with a “hard” exit by Britain from the European Union. Until now, banks have considered varying degrees of upheaval to their British-based businesses, depending on whether the outcome of Brexit was “hard” or “soft.” But after Prime Minister Theresa May said that Britain would […]
January 19, 2017 by: Claire Jones in Frankfurt The European Central Bank has kept interest rates at record lows and the terms of its landmark quantitative easing package unchanged as its president prepares to field questions on an economic outlook full of threats. The bank’s governing council, meeting on Thursday in Frankfurt, left its benchmark main refinancing rate at zero. Its deposit rate, in effect a levy […]
SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK This past November, Nasdaq Inc (NDAQ.O) hired a helicopter to film Manhattan’s skyline using Snapchat’s new video-camera sunglasses and sent the aerial footage to its social media followers. The New York Stock Exchange – its arch-rival – on the same day tweeted a video shot from the floor of its exchange, showing that it too was using the social media giant’s gadget. The scramble […]
If this week’s speech by Theresa May on her Brexit plans was designed to reassure the City of London and stop banks from shifting jobs out of the UK, early indications are that it appears to have failed. The prime minister is scheduled to address business leaders at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos Thursday morning, but in the meantime a flurry of senior financiers popped […]
