Archive for February 2011
Watch for Saudi Arabia and Gulf State reaction
This piece from the insightful Stratfor summarises the middle east situation. Libya is sad but the key remains in the rich central oil states. Watch for shifts there. The $37Bn payment to Saudis is consequential in this debate.
Watch for Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States reaction.
Colin Chapman: George, what are the potential geopolitical implications of these events on the rest of the Middle East and beyond?
George: The situation in North Africa has for the moment clarified itself. You’ve got a military junta running Egypt. It’s promised elections and we’ll see if they happen. Tunisia has settled into an unsettled state and of course we have the chaos in Libya. But Libya is simply not that important a country to have broader geopolitical implications. The most important things are happening are happening in Bahrain. And they’re happening in Bahrain right now because Bahrain is both connected by a causeway to Saudi Arabia, has a large Shiite population, a Sunni ruling family, and is a port for the U.S. 5th Fleet. Everything comes together.
“Bank of America is the Bank of Satan” | Finextra.com
In a follow up to Bank of America’s dumb url strategy idea noted late last year, one outcome is a new cottage industry described in this Finextra post, whereby people are creating facetious sites that refer to bankofamerica.com. They must be chasing their tails in BofA marketing right now.
Who knew and when did they know it | Bernie Madoff facts still unclear
Interesting opinion and analysis piece from Danny Schechter on Al Jazeera.
US economics: One big Ponzi scheme | Al Jazeera
For years, he went undetected by business journalists, who knew – or should have known – what he was up to. There are even questions about the speed with which he was sentenced, preventing him from being tried – a process which, through diligent cross-examination, would have brought us more information on the details of his dirty deals.
The NY Times have a Madoff timeline here and this is a summary:
Its an interesting point. Seven months from arrest to prison is a nano-second in the time frame of American high profile cases. And 3 months from charges to guilty verdict! Danny goes on to point out several areas of unprecedented speed and lack of attention to detail that could be viewed by sceptics as something of a cover up.
Read on and judge for yourselves about the role of the media, the regulators, the banks and last but not least, Israel, where this Madoff was well known for his connections with Jewish philanthropists and institutions, and who were amongst the largest losers.
North America, Europe and the view of things in the world
Nice article in the Baltimore Sun that perfectly summarises the last 3 weeks in the middle east, and how the American news stations have lost the place. I love Al Jazeera but the quality it represents is a subset of a global problem.
It’s Al Jazeera, then everyone else | Baltimore Sun
It was fascinating Friday to watch how closely CNN seemed to be tracking or imitating — or maybe simply chasing — Al Jazeera.
In the immediate wake of Mubarak’s resignation, the U.S. channels seemed to be content to mostly show images of Liberation Square while anchors and correspondents kept using the adjectives "historic," "remarkable" and "extraordinary" to tell us what we already knew.
But on Al Jazeera, the producers and correspondents were trying to gather and present new bits and pieces of the breaking story. Al Jazeera was the first to report that Swiss banks had frozen all of Mubarak’s assets. About 25 minutes later, I saw the same news reported on CNN.
Even more interesting was the way CNN seemed to be trying to match Al Jazeera’s imagery — shot for shot at some points. During some stretches, CNN actually had the same camera shot as Al Jazeera — only a few seconds later. I don’t know if they were tracking and imitating — or it they were sharing a feed at certain times of the day, and there was a satellite delay in CNN’s reception and broadcast of the images.
This matters because it is not possible to grow and innovate in this global world unless you know what is going on in the world. When I go to Europe and speak to people there, I see a dramatic difference in how they view the world compared to North America.
Then when I speak to folks in East Asia over the last few days, its hard to find information on Egypt. They had to seek out CNN to see what was happening.
These differences matter.
The picture of organisation – Tahrir Square
Cairo’s central Tahrir Square was the focal point for anti-Mubarak protesters during 18 days of demonstrations. As the protest neared its peak, the BBC’s Yolande Knell took a tour of the area. Explore the protesters’ camp by clicking on the links.
Click through to BBC for interactive version.
A coup has taken place in Egypt with the military now in charge
Mubarak is gone, and a military council is in charge. The senior leaders of the military now have the challenge to move the country from a military dictatorship under 31 years of military rule towards some type of democratic government. There are many questions concerning political aspects, but it does not seem clear that the region, including Suez & Israel can expect some continuation of local peace treaties and inter country stability.
Mubarak Resigns, Military is in Charge | Stratfor
Egyptian Vice President Omar Suleiman delivered the following statement Feb. 11: “In the name of God the merciful, the compassionate, citizens, during these very difficult circumstances Egypt is going through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to step down from the office of president of the republic and has charged the high council of the armed forces to administer the affairs of the country. May God help everybody.”
Suleiman’s statement is the clearest indication thus far that the military has carried out a coup led by Defense Minister Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi. It is not clear whether Suleiman will remain as the civilian head of the army-led government. Egypt is returning to the 1952 model of ruling the state via a council of army officers. The question now is to what extent the military elite will share power with its civilian counterparts.
Read more: Red Alert: Mubarak Resigns, Military is in Charge | STRATFOR
Article moved
The post on the BIV article was posted incorrectly here. If you want to read it is here.
Social Media Week – Toronto
Douglas Porter Chief Economist BMO provides introduction and context before we get into a discussion with people from Linkedin, Google, and Globe & Mail.
Location hosted by BMO in First Canadian Place.
The value of banks to people
There are some amazing books out recently that question how we think about economics. I am now into “The Price of Everything” by Eduardo Porter.
I recently read the New Capitalist Manifesto by Umair Haque, which in retrospect was at the opposite end of the valuation of price chain.
Umair’s book looked at price considering all costs both immediate and future.
Porters book looks at price as how people interact in the here and now. How do people react to gas prices; how do people react to the availability of plastic bottles in garbage dumps in Delhi; how do people price the deaths in the World Trade Centre – yes he gets into some very controversial views on price.
The price of life is a particularly powerful chapter.
The overall point of the book though, is the value of everything to people as they make day to day decisions.
This resonates for me for the price of banking. Consumers pay for banking two ways … interest rates and fees.
Porter dissects how people make decisions about paying for things, Those decisions are both conscious and subconscious. The thinking in this is closely related to Levitt/ Dubner in Freakonomics which considers amongst other things, the result of unintended consequences from current decisions.
Relevance for Bankwatch:
I am only part way through the book, but already can see problems in how Banks price products versus how people value those products. People require banking / payment services just to survive and exist and banks charge what fees that people pay.
The book makes the point that all decisions are based on consideration of value in the transaction. This raises the point that people pay based on the opportunity cost of the alternative to the current opportunity. In banking land there is no alternative. Each bank looks similar in terms of cost and there is no obvious alternative product/ service other than those that are quite identical aside from price.
This is a problem for banks. Differentiation based on price is not a sustainable strategy.
More to come as I dissect this book.
Super Bowl funnies
Some things about America are funny (during Super Bowl)
