It is just as hysterical in the UK. New FSA regulations re KYC and money laundering have landed the onus on the banker and not the client (hence the former can and will go to prison even if his intention was pure but his follow up poor). ALthough not as extreme as the Patriot Act, these regulations effectively lose institutions business especially from the Middle East as few individuals let alone companies pass rigorous KYC tests, this in addition to the reluctance of potential clients to go through such invasivesness as is entailed by the investigations. Everybody's poorer and terrorism funds still manage to be remitted through informal means. At least we're free and still drawing a salary.

And then we get companies like Caribou Coffee going all short-thobed...

Well, hell, if there's free money to be had...

What free money, mate?

This is not grant money, we're talking equity investment.

The Caribiou item is actually quite interesting. I should follow up on it.

I think America, and to a lesser extent, Europe, are regulating themselves right out of many markets. American investors just aren't that valuable a source of capital these days that folks in MENA are willing to jump through hoops while doing back flips to entice them to invest.

There's so much silly money sloshing around the gulf right now I'm puzzled that anyone in MENA would actively court American capital, especially USG-backed American capital. Apart from all the extra crap they must put up with, there's enough potential political risk in having a U.S. connection to your fund or project that the promoters should be demanding a premium from U.S. investors to allow them to invest in MENA projects.

BTW, Islamic-friendly investing is just a subspecies of "social investing" and social investing as a class always underperforms. Having said that, many of the ridiculous restrictions and requirments now being demanded by the USG are equally a form of "social investing." I therefore predict that investments made in conformance with these requlations will also underperform.

A clarification: There's so much silly money sloshing around the gulf right now I'm puzzled that anyone in MENA would actively court American capital, especially USG-backed American capital.

Actually it is a bit the other way around. Regardless, in the capital poor countries, there is still enough of a lack of capital that wants to go into certain asset classes (which is to say, non-Real Estate backed) that outside capital remains important. And then of course in the Maghreb their connexions and style is so different from those of the Gulf that while more money from Gulf is flowing there, it remains less than ideal.

You're right re Islamic Investing being a sub-species of social investing (generally), although I would rephrase to say "social investing as a class generally underperforms." Generally.

I agree re the USG regs, which are entirely self-defeating and borderline perverse.