Having surpassed the US$1trn mark, we take a look at Islamic banking and its outlook over the next couple of years. Liz Martins, Head of Middle East and North Africa analysis at Business Monitor International, discusses some opportunities and threats of an industry that is expected to double in size over the coming five years.

 

 Standard Podcast [15:17m]
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Rumours are still swirling on the subject of the Dubai World (DW) restructuring, and I am not yet convinced that the time to initiate a long-term bullish position on Dubai stocks has come, in spite of the recent rally. I have heard various theories on DW, and I am inclined to the optimistic side: the [Read more...]

Having just returned from my latest business trip to Dubai, I have to report that confidence in general remains very subdued. For sheer tragic parade-raining, bubble-bursting symbolism, you can’t beat the Burj Khalifa tower (renamed at the last minute to appease the neighbours and then closed soon after opening for ‘technical reasons’ – for three [Read more...]

The end of month closes across asset classes could be the most important since March 2009, when a clear reversal pattern prompted us to turn bullish towards equities. This time, a weak close would suggest an end to the rally of the past 10 months, with the potential for some significant medium-term downside for equities [Read more...]

 

 Standard Podcast [11:45m]
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Suggestions of a technical default on November 26 by UAE-based Dubai World have sent shockwaves through the financial world. Not only are creditworthiness concerns reaching boiling point, but global equity markets, too, seem to initially have gone into panic mode. Business Monitor’s Liz Martins and Terry Alexander discuss the implications of a debt default by [Read more...]

 

 Standard Podcast [11:34m]
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The news that Dubai World, one of the stalwarts of the Dubai economy, is potentially defaulting on its debt is, quite simply, massive. It highlights the sheer scale of a financial crisis that Dubai has been doing its best to keep under wraps for more than a year. The situation is far from clear, but [Read more...]

“If you have a lot of what people want and can’t get, then you can supply the demand and shovel in the dough”. – Lucky Luciano
It’s a simple enough concept, and one that helped make the father of modern organised crime in the United States cited above ‘one of the most influential builders and titans [Read more...]