Category Archives: Finance

Arab Counterrevoltion, Arabian Peninsula, Economics, Finance, GCC, Gulf states, Jordan, Persian-American Gulf, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Leadership of GCC: Three Major Failures, Three Strikes but not Out, not yet……..

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

        BFF        

The GCC summit of the Gulf states this week again proved the failure of the shaky type of leadership the Saudis have tried to impose. This last summit marks three major “projects” that have failed.

  1. The GCC leaders gave the usual lip service to the ‘latest’ Saudi proposal that they should work toward some form of a political union. Gulf Salafis and Saudi media had been calling for a “confederation” since Bahrain joined the Arab revolutions in February. The leaders decided to start discussions and talks about that in the future, which is the usual way to kill any proposal.

  2. With this Saudi suggestion for a confederation dead on arrival (DOA), the leaders turned their attention briefly to killing another earlier strange Saudi proposal. They quickly killed the earlier Saudi proposal to allow Jordan and Morocco to join the GCC. They agreed to allow some form of limited “partnership” for Jordan and Morocco (I hate to say I told you so, but these people don’t listen to me anymore: that is what I predicted here, more than once). The potentates also voted US$ 5 billion in aid for the two countries to ease any disappointment after raising their hopes with the ill-advised Saudi membership proposal that was a product of fear. That will not exactly entertain the notoriously humorless Jordanians but it should keep the scowls moderate. Besides, Bahrain, and probably the UAE, will continue to import security agents and interrogators (know as torturers in less genteel parlance) from Jordan.

  3. Long before all that, before the Arab uprisings, the GCC quietly shelved the unified currency proposal, although they keep pretending they are still working on it.This is something they have been working on for almost three decades. I knew it would fail simply because they had not done the necessary preliminary work for it. And they do not need it: they tried it at the whim of some ignoramus potentate (you know who I mean).

  • That is three strikes for the Saudis, or three downs and short of a first down (three failures in American-ese).
  • Let’s see what other gems of proposals they will come up with next. Maybe the Saudis’ next proposal should be more modest, something within the capabilities of their bureaucrats. I shall post more on this sometime later.

  • I strongly suspect that any Saudi proposal about anything would not succeed unless they throw a lot of money at it.  Even then the money is no guarantee of success. They are trying feat, but I doubt it will succeed. Fear of Saudi domination, close up and right next door, may be stronger than fear of the Iranian mullahs who are far across the Persian-American Gulf and beyond the American navy.


Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Finance, U.S. Congress, U.S. Politics, Wall Street

GOP: a New Nixon, but not as Smart, and no Chicago ‘68…………..

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
      BFF   

“During the Sunday show, Romney criticized Gingrich, the former House Speaker, for making a statement in May that “cut the legs out” from under the plan, part of a 2012 budget Ryan proposed back in April. “Are we going to deal with entitlement reform or not?” Romney asked. “Republicans came together, Paul Ryan was the author of the plan. But almost every single Republican voted for it, and the Speaker said this is ‘right-wing social engineering.'” Romney’s actual Medicare plan is not as extreme as Ryan’s, however. Instead, it preserves the existing Medicare program, allowing seniors to choose to receive vouchers for private insurance instead of the government plan, while Ryan would end Medicare in favor of a voucher system. Fox host Chris Wallace pressed Romney on his support for the Ryan budget, suggesting that Ryan’s plans to eliminate $700 billion in aid to states, including $127 billion in food stamps, would make Romney vulnerable to Democratic attacks in the general election. Romney said that he would help the poor by growing the economy, and suggested that cutting government benefits for the poor wouldn’t cause problems. “Cutting welfare spending dramatically, I don’t think will hurt the poor,” Romney said………”

I wonder if taking away Mitt Romney’s trust fund, maybe cutting it dramatically, would not hurt him? I mean taking it away retroactively, since he is now “self-made”.
Right wing  radio gasbags are right: Obama can blow this guy away in 2012. Even the beleaguered Humphrey, with Chicago ’68 around his neck, almost beat Nixon. And Nixon was smarter.
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Afghanistan, Al-Qaeda, Arab Counterrevoltion, Espionage, Finance, Hezbollah, Iraq, Latin America, Lebanon, nuclear Iran, Saudi Arabia, Terrorism, U.S. Politics, US Foreign Policy, WTF

Mel Brooks and Oliver Stone of Persia: a Taliban-Hezbollah-Colombian-Iranian-alQaeda-Mexican-Texan-African Network………

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
      BFF   

“The court action, filed in Manhattan federal court, seeks nearly half a billion dollars in penalties from three Lebanese financial organizations — the now-defunct Lebanese Canadian Bank and two Beirut-based money exchange houses — and 30 auto dealers in the United States. The $480 million in penalties is the sum of the drug proceeds that are alleged to have been laundered; the government is also seeking to freeze and seize assets traceable to those companies………… Thursday’s complaint offers fresh details about the workings of what it says was a scheme to launder South American cocaine cash and Hezbollah’s own money, naming the American-based auto dealers and people it says were Hezbollah operatives. For example, the action charges that Oussama Salhab was a Hezbollah operative in Togo who ran a network that transported cash from cars sold in Benin on flights to Beirut. Prosecutors say he worked with Maroun Saade — suspected of being a member of the Free Patriotic Movement, a Lebanese Christian political party allied with Hezbollah — who has been charged in a separate case with aiding the Taliban………”

I wonder what Mel Brooks is up to these days? Is he teaming up with Oliver Stone? Could those two be working on something like this, this topic of my piece here?
Is it just the holiday season or is the world going crazy around me? At least from my current perspective in the Pacific Northwest it seems like many heretofore otherwise sensible people are going mad. Look at all this:

  • Hezbollah alliance with the Taliban (across fourteen centuries of separation, across five nations of separation)?
  • Iranian alliance with al-Qaeda which is the mortal Wahhabi enemy of the Shi’as (including Iranians and Iraqis and Lebanese and Bahrainis and Pakistanis and all others)?
  • Iranian and al-Qaeda alliance allegedly but ridiculously improbably going way back to the 1990s, mostly via the good offices and miraculous guesswork of Judge John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia?
  • Iranian-Mexican Drug Cartel-Texan Nutcase alliance to blow up a restaurant in Georgetown and its famous clients just because it serves mediocre food to smug bureaucrats and charges too much? This last one allegedly courtesy of the DEA and the U.S. Department of Justice, and possibly Mujahideen-e-Khalq, among others.
  • Iraqi-Iranian-Syrian (wtf?)-Lebanese alliance to conquer Bahrain as a prelude to conquering the rest of the world and forcing Rick Santorum and Rick Perry to become Muslims and make the Hajj to Mecca?
  • Lebanese-Columbian-Taliban-Hezbollah-Maronite Christian plot to make money from a new triangular trade but without the rum and the African slaves.
  • Hezbollah-IRGC-Wehrmacht-Goldman Sachs…….. oh zut, sorry. Got carried away.


WTF is going on here? Is everyone going paranoid or are all of these plots real? Should we start looking under our beds each night for Iranian mullahs and Lebanese Shi’as? Are the Wahhabi princes now financing the hated Shi’a militants as well? Or is it just that the ‘plots’ are thickening?
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Economics, Finance, Iran

Iran TEPIX, NYSE, NASDAQ, Blankfine, Cramer, Cain………..

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
      BFF

“The main index of the Tehran Stock Exchange, TEPIX, has soared to a record high, despite the US-led sanctions imposed on the Islamic Republic of Iran. The benchmark index gained 240 points to close at an all-time high of 24,356 on Sunday, IRNA reported. The surge was mostly due to Iran’s copper, steel, and petrochemical industries as investors traded shares worth $36.4 million. The Tehran Stock Exchange, founded in 1967, has been one of the world’s best performing stock markets in recent years and ranked as the best bourse index in Europe, Africa, and the Middle East in 2010 in terms of performance of the main index……….” Press TV (Iran)

I suppose I shouldn’t be surprise. The US economy is still in the doghouse, but the NYSE and Nasdaq have soared in recent weeks. Yet clearly trading on the TEPIX is not exactly very deep. At a daily trade of $36.4 million, Lloyd Blankfine can do more trading than that. Hell, Jim Cramer can do more trading than that. Hell, Hermann Cain can trade that much after he sells his book that he ran for president to promote.
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Culture, Finance, religious police, Salafi, Saudi Arabia

More Saudi Reforms: Commission for the Propagation of Vice arrests Cafe Couples..……

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
      BFF

“Saudi Arabia’s feared religion police smashed a prostitution ring in the Gulf Kingdom’s second largest city, involving at least 20 airline stewardesses of Arab nationality, a newspaper reported on Sunday. Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice had watched the ring for more than four months in a bid to trap its leader, who was also caught with the other members, the Arabic language daily Sabq said in a report from the western Red Sea port of Jeddah. “The ring leader had been very careful and had managed his ring only by phone. It took the Commission members at least four months to get him,” it said. The paper said the Arab ring leader was hunted when Commission members, acting on a tip off, seized a stewardess with a Saudi man at a coffee shop……….”

One has got to be careful here. The Saudi religious cops have their own definition of “vice”. After all, these goons are now threatening to force women to cover (as too sexy) the only part of them that they are allowed to expose. That would be their eyes, especially sexy expressive eyes that drive these polygamous perverts crazy.
So they caught her with a man sipping lattes at a coffee shop and that is evidence of prostitution. Imagine if they were caught having a full meal together at a restaurant: that is the Saudi equivalent of ‘going all the way’. The fact that she was with a “Saudi” man is apparently also considered some kind of proof. The logic of the Commission for the Propagation of Vice goes like this: otherwise, why else would a woman be with a Saudi man? Unfortunately it is a common “logic” on the shores of my Gulf (and apparently the Red Sea as well).
Maybe that is all they do when they hook up in Saudi Arabia: drink some coffee together.
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Economics, Europe, Finance, U.S. Politics

Deutschland, Deutschland, Über Alles: European Economy, American Economy…………

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
      BFF

“The debt crisis sweeping southern Europe and lapping France is cause for alarm in Washington and Beijing, but not it seems for the rank and file of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party. On the contrary, at a meeting of Merkel’s Christian Democrats the mood among delegates ranged from triumphalism over Germany’s economic strength to complacency about the crisis and blind faith in Berlin’s ability to shield Germany from it. Merkel warned on the first day of the congress Monday that Europe faced what could be its “toughest hour since World War Two.” But her message didn’t register with many of those in the hall or with the German media. Much press coverage focused on domestic issues – the minimum wage, childcare and education………… Unemployment has fallen to its lowest levels since German reunification in 1990 and the smaller “Mittelstand” firms that form the backbone of Europe’s largest economy have strong order backlogs.…….”

That “alles” also includes the United States, speaking of economics. While U.S. corporations have rushed during the past two decades to export more jobs than products, German firms have focused on keeping jobs inside Germany. German government policies have helped. The American corporatist right-wing has been making a lot of noise about patriotism, while facilitating the opposite: the weakening of the Middle Class in favor of corporations. Even Dick Cheney’s beloved Halliburton, beneficial of so many American government contracts moved its headquarters to the Persian-American Gulf, to be near the potentates so beloved by the Cheneys, and for patriotic tax purposes.
Remember all the swooning over the “Japanese model”? I was in graduate school in those days and I remember that it immediately preceded the long stagnation of the Japanese economy. Forget the Japanese model, forget the crazy Tea Party model. Go the German model, but that may require some sort of mass lobotomy for the corporate and political leaders. And who is going to perform that? Will Obamacare cover that (Germany, like all other industrial countries except the United States, has a robust public health system)?
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Culture, Finance, GCC, Saudi Arabia, WTF

Innovative Drug Dealers of Riyadh, American Bankers………

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
      BFF

Saudi media report of two enterprising drug dealers, Yemeni expatriates, who were busted this week in Riyadh. Apparently they sold their dope (including hashish) on easy installments, like many other things on the Gulf. The report says they even sold dope to kids on installment. It also says they lived in luxurious hotels in order to avoid raising suspicion. They did basically what banks in the USA have been doing to kids: sending credit card enticements to students, with easy installments for the rest of their lives. What most people don’t realize is that most Gulf citizens need these “easy installment” deals and that is how they purchase almost all their needs, apparently including drugs. The Gulf potentates and retainers are the exception; they probably buy everything, including their drugs, with cash. These tow dealers did not even charge interest. In that, they were probably more Islamist than Islamic banks that charge interest without calling it so.
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Corruption, Finance, U.S. Congress, U.S. Politics, Wall Street

Goldman Sachs America: Bipartisanship in Corruption, Political Cannabis ………

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
      BFF

“Months before MF Global teetered on the brink, federal regulators were seeking to rein in the types of risky trades that contributed to the firm’s collapse. But they faced opposition from an influential opponent: Jon S. Corzine, the head of the then little-known brokerage firm. As a former United States senator and a former governor of New Jersey, as well as the leader of Goldman Sachs in the 1990s, Mr. Corzine carried significant weight in the worlds of Washington and Wall Street. While other financial firms employed teams of lobbyists to fight the new regulation, MF Global’s chief executive in meetings over the last year personally pressed regulators to halt their plans. The agency proposing the rule, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, relented………….”

Who said there is no bipartisanship in the U.S. Congress? There is in fact a lot of it, but it is not used to help the American people. Look at Goldman Sachs: how many federal government potentates, of both parties, have come from that vampire venerable institution? Not to mention other financial institutions. Jon Corzine (good Blue Northeast Democrat) used to be chairman of Goldman Sachs, before he decided to purchase the state of New Jersey as a senator, then as a governor. Robert Rubin was a honcho of Citibank (Citigroup) before he joined the Clinton administration. And there have been many others.
Then there is the money, lobbyist money, political cannabis, “Texas Weed” as I might call it. The money unites both parties in a bond of unprecedented bipartisanship. There is something that is noble about lobbyist money, corporate money: nothing could bring these two major parties together like lobbyist money. Nothing like bipartisanship based on free markets and the freedom of corporate expression (the latter courtesy of, a gift of, the Supremes).

Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Arab Media, Finance, Iran, Media, nuclear Iran, Saudi Arabia

Saudi Zeitgeist and Iranian Illuminati: Expanding Media Domination Beyond the Arab World………..

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
      BFF

“THE wealthy Saudi Arabian investor Prince Alwaleed bin Talal was mulling acquiring a stake in Twitter. Prince Alwaleed, chairman of Kingdom Holding, reportedly held talks with at least one of Twitter’s co-founders about acquiring part of their shareholding in the microblogging site, Sky News reported overnight, citing sources. If a deal is confirmed, it would add Twitter to the portfolio of companies part-owned by one of the world’s wealthiest investors. A shareholding of between $US200 million and $US300 million was examined by Kingdom Holding, which after Twitter’s recent fundraising drive would equate to about three per cent of the company, according to the report. It was unclear whether Kingdom Holding already acquired Twitter shares or whether it simply was in discussions with Twitter’s co-founders, Biz Stone and Evan Williams. Twitter declined to comment on the matter, the report said. In August, Twitter said it was taking part in a fundraising bid to fuel its global expansion. It reportedly drew in $US800 million from some existing investors, such as the US mutual funds giant T. Rowe Price. Prince Alwaleed already holds a seven per cent stake in News Corporation, the parent company of the publisher of news.com.au, which is a major shareholder in BSkyB – the owner of Sky News – and owns NewsCore. Kingdom is also a big investor in companies such as Apple and Time Warner…………”

Saudi princes and their retainers are grabbing media outlets worldwide with the same hunger as Abu Dhabi potentates grab the world supply of weapons. Theirownership is continuously expanding, and already dominates Arab airwaves. The list is long and growing longer as I write:
Asharq Alawsat (headed by a son of Prince Salman but owned by the father), Al-Hayat (owned by Prince Khaled Bin Sultan), Alarabiya (headed by a son of King Fahd but owned by an in-law), MBC, LBC, Rotana, News Corp which owns Fox News and Sky and others (partly owned by Prince al-Waleed). The latter also owns a hefty share of Times Warner (Time, CNN, etc.). Prince al-Waleed is also starting his own rival news network to Alarabiya and Aljazeera. There are more, many more that I probably can’t even imagine, like the Pyongyang Herald, Qom Tribune, Drudge Report, and Granma. Anything is possible in this age of Saudi zeitgeist.

It is a race against time: can the Saudi princes control all the world’s media before the Iranian mullahs develop their bomb and control all of our planet Earth? Can they both beat the Illuminati? Would Wolf Blitzer show up one afternoon for his News Hour, his white beard trimmed to a Saudi-style goatee and dyed jet black (Kiwi shoe polish)? Would Jack Cafferty show up attired in a thobe and shmagh? Can we expect a Republican or Democratic Presidential Debate on moderated by Tareq al-Humayyed on Alarabiya by 2016. Yes we can, maybe (zeitgeist).
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]

Culture, Finance, U.S. Politics, Wall Street

Goldman Sachs Nation: the Ugly Brave New World of American Education………

   Rattlesnake Ridge   Follow ArabiaDeserta on Twitter   

 
      BFF

“With Goldman’s Foray Into Higher Education, A Predatory Pursuit of Students and Revenues. Education Management Corp. was already a swiftly growing player in the lucrative world of for-profit higher education, with annual revenues topping $1 billion, but it had its sights set on industry domination. So, five years ago, the Pittsburgh company’s executives agreed to sell its portfolio of more than 70 colleges to a trio of investment partnerships for $3.4 billion, securing the needed capital for an aggressive national expansion. One of the new partners brought an outsized reputation for market savvy, deep pockets and a relentless pursuit of profits — the Wall Street goliath, Goldman Sachs. After the deal closed and Goldman became a partner, employees soon noticed a drastic shift in culture. Longtime admissions managers were replaced, ushering in an era in which recruiters were endlessly hounded by supervisors about hitting weekly enrollment targets. The admissions staff nearly tripled, requiring expanded floor space to accommodate a sales force of more than 2,600 across the country. Management handed down revamped telemarketing scripts designed to prey on poor and uneducated consumers………….” The Huffington Post

Interesting to see if Goldman Sachs would hire the graduates of their own “for profit” colleges? America has the best college and university education in the world, but this ugly trend, with strong lobbying and Republican support in Congress, is threatening to create a generation of educated zombies. Tea Party Zombies.
Interesting how everything Goldman gets involved in these days leads to some disaster for the public good. Someone once described it as a “leech”, but that was only tow years ago. Now I learn that it is worse: it not only sucks blood, it also sucks out something even more important for society.
Cheers
mhg


[email protected]