Archive for the ‘Economical’ Category

U.S sanctions Iran via Dubai

Saturday, December 5th, 2009

DUBAI — This freewheeling boomtown has always been the place where Iranians go to escape U.S. sanctions. Since U.S. laws stopped the sale of American products to Iran in the 1980s, Iranian traders have made the short boat ride here to buy what they want. When the U.S. Treasury banned key Iranian banks a year ago, Iranian businessmen flocked here, to the financial capital of the Middle East, to open bank accounts.

This article was written back in 2008.

Months later, Dubai-based companies are accused of violating US sanctions on Iran. [Source]

And now Dubai is in its deepest crisis and the biggest loser of all this is Iran.

The Geopolitics Of The Dubai Debt Crisis: It’s Iran vs. The United States

Posted in Economical, Regional Politics | 9 Comments »

Lebanon central bank chief got it right

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009
Salame was invited to open the stock market on Wall Street next monday.  He was invited because people were impressed with how well he managed the global financial crisis.
Riad Toufic Salame bucked pressure in 2005 and kept Lebanese banks from investing in mortgage-backed securities. Now the sector is prospering amid the global downturn.
Reporting from Beirut — Throughout history, men braved the odds to perform great feats. Outmatched generals snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Titans of industry gambled on bold innovations to reap jackpots. Athletes tested the limits of human endurance in quests for glory.

Riad Toufic Salame, the governor of Lebanon’s central bank, is not one of those men.

Instead, the silver-haired banker became a hero by playing it very, very safe. In 2005, he defied pressure from the Lebanese business community and bucked international trends to issue what now looks like a prophetic decree: a blanket order barring any bank in his country from investing in mortgage-backed securities, which contributed to the most dramatic collapse of financial institutions since the Great Depression.

So as major banks in America and Europe were shuttered or partly nationalized and thousands of people in the U.S. financial sector were laid off, Lebanon’s banks had one of their best years ever.

From the LA Times

Posted in Economical, Lebanon | 5 Comments »

Free Beirut from the tents ..

Saturday, October 13th, 2007

I was in DT Beirut today and a huge ad caught my attention. Virgin had it displayed on his building saying “Virgin is Open“.

I hope all shops will take a similar initiative and invite All Lebanese to go down and revive the DT & Beirut until we free them from those tents.

A better term would be “cleaning” Beirut from the tents.

Posted in Economical, Information, Lebanon, Political | 10 Comments »

Lebanon’s economy will flourish in 5 years ?

Monday, July 24th, 2006

In my earlier post, i told a friend that i ll elaborate on Lebanese economy flourishing 5 years after the crisis is done.

The future of Lebanon as a whole will be determined in the next few weeks, and the outcome of the Hizbullah-Israel war will be crucial on the Lebanese economcy specifically. The best case scenario would be a diplomatic solution that ll disarm Hizbullah, establish Lebanese authority, protect himself from Israel after spreading NATO forces on the borders or forming a buffer zone.

Such a scenario regardless of all the damage being done will make Lebanon flourish like it never did before, and since the Americans and Europeans are on very good terms with the government, added to Arab countries. Lebanon would come back to what it was before.

Added to that, one should note that regardless of how good we were doing, there was a problem called Hizbullah weaking our economy and letting many investors run away and so we were not in an optiimal situation

Lets hope for the best cause any outcome having Hizbullah as winner will ruin our economy forever.

Posted in Economical, Editorials, Lebanon | No Comments »

Lack of Planning

Saturday, May 6th, 2006

Dear readers,

As this is my first post in these blogs, I chose to make it an economical post as i am fed up from politics these days. What really intrigues me is the fact that we are suffering under a huge national debt and it seems no one cares about it (by no one I mean politicians). I understand that we have more important issues to deal with, I understand that we are under a severe attack and that the current process will affect the future of Lebanon for the coming decades, but what i can not understand is the fact that no one is taking care of the economy. I am not talking about miracles, but what about planning. Who is stopping us from planning.

When Hakim was released and the syrians withdrew from Lebanon, i was talking to a friend of mine and i was full of confidence and hope and said to him that from now on, the political arena in Lebanon will be different, every party will recruit some of its members as specialist advisors and they will be competing who will come up with the best plan regarding economical and other important issues.

Oops, I was so wrong. Looks like we are cursed to always turn in an empty circle.

Posted in Economical | 8 Comments »

The Real Chrisitan Resistance

Tuesday, May 2nd, 2006

The real resistance is in the South, but not the resistance of Hizbullah, the resistance of Southern Christians. After spending a weekend there with the young men of those villages and after a tour in of those poor villages, I can tell you very confidently that they are the real resistance.

“Since the liberation day we have been having very gloomy days”, according to one of the young men from a village, “We have been affected on all levels.”

On the security level they had always felt protected and safe because of the presence of SLA and especially because of 3a2el Hachem, who was assassinated by Hizbullah with the collaboration of Israel. He was a strong man and if he was alive during the liberation day he would not have let Hizbullah enter the Christian areas. After the liberation people had to tie their cars so no one would come and steal it. What made Israel allow Hizbullah to assassinate him?

Economically, Hizbullah and Amal apparently gave clear orders to their supporters not to buy anything from Christian sellers which in return forced them to close their shops and mostly immigrate. Many Christians are now outside Lebanon, some in Israel and some left Israel to other countries, just because they cannot come back to Lebanon. Many of them, especially men from “klay3a” come to the Israeli borders and watch their own village which is just 2 minutes away. They can’t come back to Lebanon and they haven’t been to their villages for over 6 years now. Over 50 Lebanese children who were born in Israel cannot get a Lebanese citizenship.

Every year, people in the Christian areas face problems with Hizbullah when it comes time to collect their olives during picking season. Hizbullah always coincidentally sets up tactical checkpoints between the olive gardens and the Christians and they stop anyone from passing across.

Socially, people there are living a miserable life, they have no work domains, they all work in agriculture and I guess this is one of the main reasons that they are tied to their villages.

Politically there isn’t much to talk about. They are not represented above all ignored by ALL parties. The majority of the villagers are pro LF, yet the LF does not ask about them. The villagers complain about how they feel so ignored and left alone to face their miserable fate.

All the above reasons and more are causing major problems, most importantly Christians leaving their villages. Only 10% are currently still living in their hometowns which is a lot less then when they were under occupation. Moreover because of their need for money, they are selling their lands to the Shiite. If you go to the area you can see how in the Shiite villages houses are being built while in the Christian villages houses are vacant and abandoned.

These Christians living there are the real resistance, the real Christians, living the simple life attached to the land, believing in God and relying on him.

From here I call on all the Christians leaders to take a trip to those villages, spend a weekend just like I did, and they will see how unfair their situation is. I believe our Christian politicians should be ashamed because of the situation of those villages.

I urge everyone of you to visit the villages and spend some time there and see how nice, honest and friendly the people are and maybe give them some hope in return.

Posted in Economical, Information, Lebanon, Other, Political | 2 Comments »

Section Activation

Saturday, April 1st, 2006

This post is just to activate the sections. Ignore it.

Posted in Critiques, Economical, Editorials, Ethics & Religion, Events, Humor, Information, Lebanon, News, Other, Personal Opinions, Political, Political Islam, Predictions, Regional Politics, World News & Politics | Comments Off