RSSFebruary 2008 Archives
February 24, 2008
Emerging MENA & Global Froth
Given the real potential for a catastrophic melt down in the US, driven by a credit bubble and solvency crisis, and the unknowns of the overall US securitised assets market crisis (sub-prime etc), nicely boosterish articles such as this FT Funds article on MENA markets being the next hot thing make me smile. My thinking since the US credit crisis began has been that until the crisis triggers a global recession, Emerging Markets are going to do better on the basis that "you know what you don't know" or rather the transparency issues are well-known versus the US where suddenly what one thought one knew.... well, who the fuck knows where the bad instruments are now. For all that, the boosterism of observations like "Funds investing in the Middle East and North Africa could be the next hot spot for investors seeking high returns in emerging markets, as some report returns in excess of 50 per cent" strike me as buying into the market after the opportunity has already moved on. 2 years ago this was a good deal. Now?
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Posted by The Lounsbury at 02:23 PM
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Business
On Contacting Lounsbury
Having been bored enough - procrastinating really - to check my Aqoul mail I am reminded that some readers actually want to sometimes contact me and that I rarely read the official email.
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Posted by The Lounsbury at 11:40 AM
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Blog Notes - Admin
February 23, 2008
Obama & Image, MENA chatter
I have found myself oddly fascinated by the US election cycle of late, shared I have noted of late among the educated circles. Nevertheless, I have begun to hear odd things, such as an otherwise quite well educated Maghrebine financier assert Obama converted to Xianity late in life. Not said with rancor, rather as trivia.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 10:57 PM
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Politics
February 17, 2008
The Bloody Cartoons: Danes & Muhammed
It is at once boring and frustrating to see Danish cartoons in the news again and worse the same idiotic posturing all around being repeated.
I had the occasion to watch on TV the Danish Muslims marching (I presume in Copenhagen, caught my attention too late), it was the perfect image for the Islamophobic portion of Danemark - lots of Islamic banners written in Arabic, not a many (none perhaps) Danish flags and precious little Danish spoken at all - lots of stereotypical chanting of Allah Akbar and similar typical sloganeering appropriate if they were in Baghdad, Beirut or ... well not in Denmark.
Bloody own goals, really the demos (led it must be said by a radical group it appears) merely advanced the interests of... the people who argue the Muslims are and can not properly integrate into Denmark. Pure idiocy.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 11:02 AM
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Politics - Islam(ic)
February 16, 2008
Changing Image of Middle East North Africa MENA Business
An odd encounter I had on a TGV in Europe (somewhere on the continent..., kha) highlighted a change one is seeing in re MENA and emerging markets business, and I think it worthwhile sharing.
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Posted by The Lounsbury at 04:34 PM
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Perso-Expatedness
February 04, 2008
So, if one's major client is arrested...
What does one do? And when I say arrested, I do mean the client, not just one stupid whanker in middle management, but a whole judicial brigade and the like descending.
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Posted by The Lounsbury at 09:48 PM
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Perso Biz Notes
February 03, 2008
New Month General Open Note
As I noted in the main Aqoul, it has been a quiet two months at the Aqoul Zone. Afraid for myself, as noted, the recent turbulence in the markets has been most distracting on many levels, and regrettably the requested insights from some comments on MENA end developments would fall into areas I can not comment on easily.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 01:39 PM
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Blog Notes - Admin
