Young Saudis invent ploys to enter family-only malls
By NADIA AL-FAWAZ | ARAB NEWS ABHA: Entering malls and shopping centers have become a real challenge for young Saudi men, who have innovated many ways and means to force […]
Architects of EU disasters in charge again
RT: The debt-stricken eurozone is set to enter 2012 in a gloomy mood with Italy’s borrowing costs remaining near the 7 per cent danger zone. The Italian PM has pledged more efforts to revive the ailing economy in his end-of-year speech. Still, there are huge doubts that the new men […]
Oil Prices Predicted to Stay Above $100 a Barrel Through Next Year
http://pix04.revsci.net/H07707/b3/0/3/0806180/329524110.js?D=DM_LOC%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.themuslimtimes.org%252Fwp-admin%252Fpost-new.php%26DM_CAT%3DNYTimesglobal%2520%253E%2520General%26DM_EOM%3D1&C=H07707%2CH07707 The United States economy managed to cope this year despite triple-digit prices for barrels of oil. The lessons may come in handy, economists say, because those prices will probably be sticking around. With Iran threatening to cut off about a fifth of the world’s oil supply by closing the […]
Italy’s Borrowing Costs Drop Sharply at Auction
http://pix04.revsci.net/H07707/b3/0/3/0806180/19338825.js?D=DM_LOC%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.themuslimtimes.org%252Fwp-admin%252Fpost-new.php%26DM_CAT%3DNYTimesglobal%2520%253E%2520General%26DM_EOM%3D1&C=H07707%2CH07707http://pix04.revsci.net/H07707/b3/0/3/0806180/498452523.js?D=DM_LOC%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.themuslimtimes.org%252Fwp-admin%252Fpost-new.php%26DM_CAT%3DNYTimesglobal%26DM_EOM%3D1&C=H07707LONDON — Italy’s short-term borrowing costs were halved Wednesday at an auction of government bills, easing the immediate pressure on the country’s economy. The sale of €9 billion, or $11.8 billion, of six-month Treasury bills was seen as the first post-holiday pointer to condition of the beleaguered euro zone. Read […]
Measure of Fear
Source: Spiegel Germany. Banks Bunker Hundreds of Billions in Deposits at ECB The Central Bank headquarters in Frankfurt: Last week’s action to flood the financial markets with cash appears to have had little effect. Just before Christmas, the European Central Bank flooded the financial markets with 500 billion euros — […]
Consumer Confidence Rose More Than Forecast
Confidence among U.S. consumers rose in December to the highest level in eight months as an improving job market helped regain all the ground lost following the mid-year government budget battle and credit-rating downgrade. The Conference Board’s index increased to 64.5, exceeding all estimates in a Bloomberg News survey and […]
‘Currency Wars’ destroying dollar: Will a real war keep it going?
USA Today: Jon Rosen: As he argues in his new book, Currency Wars: The Making of the Next Global Crisis, QE is an “exercise in deception” that offers little chance of promoting long-term economic recovery. Worse, it has left the dollar highly vulnerable to speculation and, ultimately, a cataclysmic crash. […]
The Perfect Heist: Why Government Theft Continues To Go Unnoticed
This week, we doff our caps to the folks at the European Central Bank. They’ve pulled off the perfect heist. The euro-feds have opened the valves…turned on the spigots…and let nearly a half trillion euros worth of liquidity flow directly into the very same banks that have proven they can’t […]
200,000 Years Of Human History Say This Growth Spurt Can’t Last
And so the northern hemisphere had its shortest day of the year. In Baltimore, the sun never rose and never set. It was gray all day. Then it was night again. Will 2012 be the year the human race goes into a downturn…a slump…a correction? Time moves on. So do […]
U.N. passes leaner 2012-2013 budget amid economic turmoil: The beginning of the End
(Reuters) – The U.N. General Assembly on Saturday approved a 5 percent decrease in the United Nations’ budget for 2012-2013 over the previous two-year period, only the second time in 50 years that the world body has slashed its spending. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon praised the 193-nation General Assembly for […]
Prime Minister Julia Gillard bends on Nauru offshore processing (of immigrants)
LABOR will talk to Nauru about reopening an asylum seeker processing centre there if the coalition agrees to pass the government’s amendment to the Migration Act without changes. Immigration Minister […]
Hafiz program: Women are major beneficiaries
By DIANA AL-JASSEM | ARAB NEWS JEDDAH: With the implementation of the first phase of the Hafiz unemployment program on Dec. 31, 700,000 Saudis will start receiving their monthly allowance. Reports issued by the Ministry of Labor confirm that the list consists of 560,000 Saudi women against 140,000 Saudi men, […]
ECB announces $643 billion loan program
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — The European Central Bank on Wednesday announced strong demand for a key bank lending program meant to address the eurozone debt crisis. The ECB allotted €489.19 billion ($643.18 billion) in the first batch of its 3-year loan program — more than investors expected. The loans will […]
Accountability in aid: World Bank downgrades anti-poverty programme
Express News: The Pakistan Poverty Alleviation Fund seems to be losing momentum. The $250 million programme was recently downgraded by the World Bank in a report issued by the Washington-based lender’s supervisory mission. The anti-poverty program was downgraded to ‘moderately satisfactory’, the lowest grade it has received in 12 years. […]
Markets Jump in U.S. and Europe on Hopeful Signs
Source: NY Times. Stocks rose on Tuesday in Europe and on Wall Street as a drop in Spain’s borrowing costs and unexpectedly positive data from Germany eased euro zone debt worries. Short-term financing costs for struggling Spain more than halved as banks lapped up debt at an auction, with much […]
“North Koreans simply want to be fed”
by Thomas Stephens, swissinfo.ch Following the death of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il, a somewhat pessimistic security expert tells swissinfo.ch why all eyes are on the totalitarian dictatorship. Albert Stahel, […]
Fed close to new financial buffers for banks
Source / Courtesy: Yahoo news WASHINGTON (CNNMoney) — The Federal Reserve is expected this week to release a set of proposed rules detailing how much reserve capital big banks will need to keep on hand in the future. Wall Street is watching the rulemaking closely. Higher capital cushions would directly […]
Attention Shifts to Pyongyang’s Young Leader
http://pix04.revsci.net/G07608/a4/0/0/pcx.js?csid=G07608SEOUL—After the sudden death of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il, attention swings to his third son, Kim Jong Eun, who has been named as the new leader of the isolated country. A smooth transition of power is far from certain. Kim Jong Eun, born either in 1983 or 1984 […]