Saturday, July 25, 2009

Saudi fraud case highlights Gulf banking flaws - 22 July 09

Two of Saudi Arabia's wealthiest families are battling each other in a New York court over claims that one side stole $10bn from the other.

The fraud case has highlighted the lack of transparency in doing business in the Gulf, where banks are blamed for lending money to wealthy families almost solely on reputation.

Hashem Ahelbarra looks at the fallout for businesses in the region.
Category: News & Politics
Tags:
saudi arabia gulf financial fraud aljazeera

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

jim roger

Monday, July 20, 2009

US state budgets hit by shrinking tax take

By Nicole Bullock in New York

Published: July 20 2009 20:39 | Last updated: July 20 2009 20:39

Sharply falling tax revenues across the US have left states facing fresh budget shortfalls and threatening further painful spending and service cuts following previous multiple rounds of belt-tightening.

In the first quarter of the calendar year, tax collections dropped by 11.7 per cent, the largest fall on record, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government. Of 50 states, some 45 reported declines.

Early figures for April and May show an overall decline of nearly 20 per cent for total taxes, “a further dramatic worsening of fiscal conditions nationwide”, says the institute.

Billions of dollars of federal stimulus funds, combined with cuts to state employee jobs, school districts, healthcare and even the US prison system, have so far failed to close the budget gaps.

“The states are constantly trying to recalibrate their budgets to deal with a shrinking revenue base,” said Susan Urahn, managing director of state policy initiative at the Pew Center on the States.

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Friday, July 17, 2009

Economist: Expect Inverted Recovery

Julie Crawshaw
Moneynews
July 14, 2009
Economist Ed Yardeni predicted we will have an inverted head-and-shoulders recovery, and said the first shoulder has already happened.

Yardeni said the first shoulder of the formation came on Nov. 20, 2008, when the Standard and Poor’s 500 index fell to the year’s low of 752.44.

The index then rallied to 934.70 on Jan. 6, before tanking to an intraday low of 666 on March 6. Then it rebounded to this year’s high of 946.21 on June 12

“If it holds that level over the rest of the summer, then the resulting head-and-shoulders formation could set the base for the next leg up for stocks,” Yardeni told The Daily Press.

However, Yardeni said that his optimistic technical picture won’t be realized unless the fundamentals cooperate, in the form of an upturn in earnings.

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Wednesday, July 15, 2009

More than $2 Trillion are China's Reserves of US Dollars

China’s Foreign Exchange Reserves Surge, Exceeding $2 Trillion

July 15 (Bloomberg) -- China’s foreign-exchange reserves, the world’s biggest, topped $2 trillion for the first time as the nation’s economic recovery prompted overseas investors to pump money into stocks and property.



The reserves rose a record $178 billion in the second quarter to $2.132 trillion, the People’s Bank of China said today on its Web site. That dwarfs a $7.7 billion gain in the previous three months.



The Shanghai Composite Index, the world’s second-best performer, surged 75 percent this year as Premier Wen Jiabao’s stimulus package triggered unprecedented lending and surging investment. The increase in the reserves means China may buy more U.S. Treasuries as the Obama administration expands debt sales to fund a plan to revive growth.



“Hot money is flowing back,” said Sherman Chan, an economist with Moody’s Economy.com in Sydney. “China has the strongest prospects out of all major economies.”



M2, the broadest measure of money supply, rose a record 28.5 percent in June from a year earlier, the central bank said.



The yuan traded at 6.8316 against the dollar as of 4:47 p.m. in Shanghai, from 6.8329 yesterday.



The central bank has used bill sales to push up money- market rates for three weeks, seeking to tighten monetary policy without choking off a recovery as the surge in money supply increases the risk of asset bubbles, bad loans and resurgent inflation. China’s reserves are double those of Japan, the country with the second-biggest foreign currency holdings.



‘Great Challenges’



“The pace of foreign-exchange inflows will accelerate in coming months as China’s recovery attracts investors, and that will pose great challenges for monetary policy,” said Lu Zhengwei, an economist at Industrial Bank Co. in Shanghai.

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