Former Kazakh Prime Minister proposes emergency measures to overcome the current crisis DRESDEN, GERMANY – newsaktuell – 3 August 2020 – In Kazakhstan, the proposal of Akezhan Kazhegeldin, urging to unite some governmental bodies and give emergency powers to a special commission to combat the epidemic and the economic crisis, is widely discussed. Akezhan Kazhegeldin, Munich Security Conference, 2019 In an open letter to President […]
By Matein Khalid The US Dollar Index has fallen almost 6% since its March 2020 highs. This is no surprise given the sheer scale and speed of the Federal Reserve’s response to the pandemic – a $3 trillion rise in the balance sheet, a buying spree in US Treasury, agency, MBS and corporate debt, backstop programs in the corporate credit markets. In addition, Jerome Powell resorted to […]
Presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden is enjoying a boon in the presidential race, soaring in national opinion polls to new heights and overtaking Donald Trump in political betting markets. A shifting political landscape that is proving to be a subject of great interest with the punditocracy and handicappers, keen to serve up predictions for what lies ahead for the ‘land of the free and the home of […]
by James M. Dorsey Rejiggering security arrangements in the Gulf may be a more pressing issue than meets the eye. That is not good news for the Gulf states. It is also bad news for China, which could see the rug pulled out from under its studious effort to remain on the sidelines of the Middle East’s myriad conflicts. China and the Gulf states are in the same […]
By Matein Khalid The US dollar is the traditional safe haven currency during times of geopolitical or financial stress even when the cause of a risk aversion spasm is ultimately American, such as the failure of Lehman Brothers in 2008, Obama’s epic budget battles with the Republicans in 2011 and the Trump White House’s drone hit on Iran’s most revered Revolutionary Guard commander on 3 January 2020. […]
Mohamed Said Guedi, a Somaliland-Djibouti dual national, has been running successful businesses in East Africa, the Middle East and Europe. He is an entrepreneur who grew several businesses from start-ups to millions in annual sales through effective business planning, quality of products, creative sales techniques and innovative marketing.
The Euro has been a disaster since its birth in 1999. Its monetary pathologies led to youth unemployment rates of 50-60% in Greece, Spain and the Italian Mezzogiorno. It gave a trillion-dollar windfall to German exporters at the expense of the hapless Club Med and amplified Berlin’s diktat over the lands once occupied by the Third Reich. It created the milieu for Brexit, the gilets jaunes riots […]
By James M. Dorsey Traditionally focussed on ultra-conservative Sunni Muslim Islam, Saudi funding in the era of crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has been streamlined and finetuned to ensure that it serves his geopolitical ambitions, primarily stymying the expansion of Iranian influence in the Middle East and North Africa and enhancing the kingdom’s global impact. The effort, however, has so far produced a mixed bag. Spending is […]
By James M. Dorsey As far as Gulf leaders are concerned, President Donald J. Trump demonstrated with his announced US troop withdrawals from Syria and Afghanistan that his insistence that the “world is a dangerous place” has never been truer. The troop withdrawals coupled with Mr. Trump’s praising of Saudi Arabia’s alleged willingness to foot the reconstruction bill in Syria, moves that emphasized his lack of geopolitical interest in […]
By James M. Dorsey Message to Abu Dhabi, Riyadh and Tel Aviv: Not to worry, US President Donald J. Trump has no intention of meeting his Iranian counterpart, Hassan Rouhani, unconditionally. On the contrary, Mr. Trump’s surprise announcement that he is willing to talk to Mr. Rouhani is likely part of a plan formulated almost a year before he returned to government service by his national security advisor John […]
By James M. Dorsey This month’s inauguration of a fibreoptic cable linking Pakistan with China could prove to be a double-edged sword. Constructed by Chinese conglomerate Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd, the cable is likely to enhance both Pakistan’s information communication technology infrastructure as well as the influence of Chinese authoritarianism at a moment that basic freedoms in Pakistan are on the defensive. The $44 million, 820-kilometre underground Pak-China Fibre […]
|By Matein Khalid| I had written an article titled “six reasons to be bullish Saudi equities in 2018, published in the KT on January 28. Yet I was surprised to see Saudi Arabian equities become the world’s second best performing stock market in 2018 after Egypt. The Saudi equity index fund (KSA) I recommended in my column is up 18% at a time when the MSCI emerging markets […]
|By Matein Khalid| US and global equities surged on news of the US House of Representatives pass the tax reform bill, Cisco and Walmart posted blowout earnings and a potential bidding war emerged for Fox’s media assets. The rally on Thursday followed a week of carnage in the US high yield debt markets, flattening of the US Treasury yield curve and losses in the major stock market indices worldwide. […]
|By F R Chowdhury| Myanmar (previously known as Burma) is a vast country of 676,550 sq. km. or 261,217 sq. miles on the north-east coast of Bay of Bengal. Basically it is between Bangladesh and Thailand though it has also long common border with India and China. Its population is only about 49 million. Majority are Buddhists. Next large population is ethnic Bengali Muslims and a small percentage […]
KINSHASA Congolese authorities said on Thursday they had recaptured 179 fugitives who broke out of the capital’s main prison, in a mass escape that underscored growing security concerns since President Joseph Kabila refused to step down from power. Police in Kinshasa urged residents in a statement to turn in other fugitives and collaborate with authorities “to avoid the resurgence of criminality in the coming days”. Democratic Republic […]
By Mark Hosenball and Lawrence Hurley | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON Former FBI director and prosecutor Robert Mueller, known for his independence in high profile government investigations, is taking on a new challenge in the midst of a crisis that threatens the presidency of the United States. Mueller, 72, was named on Wednesday by the Justice Department to probe alleged Russian efforts to sway November’s presidential election in favor […]
By Joel Schectman | WASHINGTON WASHINGTON A bill proposed in Congress on Wednesday would require the U.S. National Security Agency to inform representatives of other government agencies about security holes it finds in software like the one that allowed last week’s “ransomware” attacks. Under former President Barack Obama, the government created a similar inter-agency review, but it was not required by law and was administered by the […]
If America’s political system were working as it should, Donald Trump would be on his way out. Either Congress would have started impeachment, or people around the president would have declared him unfit for office. But Mr Trump retains an ace up his sleeve. No elected Republican dares cross him. Any who think of standing up to him know they would risk an electronic lynching that could […]
Over the years, although the government has remained broadly authoritarian, it has oscillated among degrees of democracy. Those fluctuations, while subtle, have often coincided with elections like Friday’s. Photo Ayatollah Khomeini, the leader of the Iranian revolution, returning to Tehran in 1979 after his exile in France. Credit Gabriel Duval/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Islamic Republic: Yes or No? After throwing off their government in 1979, Iranians […]
SEOUL South Korea said on Wednesday it wanted to reopen communications with North Korea as new President Moon Jae-in seeks a two-track policy involving sanctions and dialogue with its reclusive neighbour to rein in its nuclear and missile programmes. North Korea has made no secret of the fact that it is working to develop a nuclear-tipped missile capable of striking the U.S. mainland and has ignored calls […]
Mr. Erdogan praised Mr. Trump for the “legendary triumph” he had achieved in the election and declared that his first meeting with the new president would be a “historical turn of tide” in the Turkish-American relationship. Continue reading the main story “We are committed to fighting all forms of terrorism, without any discrimination whatsoever, that impose a clear and a present threat upon our future,” Mr. Erdogan […]
