The process of making money is the best education for making more money, our
society’s wealth can grow only if the people who create it control it. Divorce
the financial profits from the learning process and the economy stagnates.
Although
many of today’s entrepreneurs are too busy to notice, they are indeed
performing a near miracle of personal wealth creation. Most started their
companies only a few years ago on relatively meager capital. Now, zapping their
companies with police radar as they zoom by at a growth rate of some 50% per
year, we can guess that dozens of those entrepreneurs command a net worth of
scores of millions.
Soon they
will be knocking on the doors of truly supreme wealth… like their predecessors
Bill Gates of Microsoft, Larry Ellison of Oracle, Steve Jobs of Apple and Mark
Zuckerberg of Facebook among others.
In sharp
contrast, many American intellectuals today think there ought to be a law
against such a reckless rags to riches. Tax it away, they say, and give it to
people who need it more. Capitalism, it is widely believed, would work better
without all these superrich capitalists.
Read More: The American Dream
Thank you,
Ziad K Abdelnour
In the
wake of the financial crisis, opponents of the banking industry are always
eager to find new sticks with which to beat the villains of Wall Street.
The latest one they have stumbled upon is banks’ participation in physical
commodities.
On July 19,
the US Federal Reserve Board issued a statement saying it was reviewing a 2003
determination that paved the way for banks to increase their involvement in the
transport and storage of physical commodities.
Separately,
Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley have both made disclosures that suggest the
Fed is reviewing the additional latitude the two banks have to engage in
physical activities – a legacy of their pre-2008 status as investment banks.
These
developments have come amid a torrent of criticism from commentators,
politicians and regulators. At a one-sided US Senate hearing on July 23,
banks’ physical commodity trading was linked to an array of negative
consequences, including inflated commodity prices, rising systemic risk and
even a potential shortage of beer cans.
Read More: What is this big fuss about banks being involved in physical commodities?
Thank you,
The head
of the opposition Free Syrian Army recently told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour he
has intelligence showing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government is
moving its chemical weapons out of the country.
If the
allegations are true – and I strongly believe they are – it could fundamentally
shift the assessments of U.S. intelligence officials.
Assad
would disperse his stockpile of chemical weapons because he knows the United
States would not bomb it, hence allowing Syrian security forces to always have
the edge – directly or by proxy – and this will ensure him the last word no
matter what.
The Syrian opposition on the other hand is
afraid that Assad’s forces will then use those weapons sometime in the future –
even after the international effort to collect and destroy its chemical weapons
arsenal is finished…. Another reason why the arms race would be going on for
years … at least as a deterrent to Assad.
Read More: Chemical Weapons are the only Problem with Syria
Thank you ,
Share your Thoughts.
As a
Lebanese myself, I would say the existence of over 18 different sects (Alawite,
Armenian Catholic, Armenian Orthodox, Assyrian Church of the East, Chaldean
Catholic, Copts, Druze, Greek Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Isma’ili, Jewish, Latin
Catholic, Maronite, Protestant, Sunni, Shi’a, Syriac Catholic, Syriac Orthodox)
in Lebanon has always been both a blessing and a curse.
A blessing
because the liberal Lebanese value the diversity of sects and appreciate the
cultural flavors it adds to the society. They see it as an opportunity to
influence and be influenced by others on an intellectual, social, cultural and
even educational level.
They
cherish this engagement and try to promote it whenever they talk about Lebanon.
They accept it as a fundamental aspect of Lebanese society and very rarely (if
ever) this diversity, negatively influences our choices of friends, life
partners, lovers and other aspects of our daily lives.
Read More: Religious Fervor and the Future of Lebanon
Thank you,
I am a
Lebanese-American, a conservative and a capitalist. I was born in Lebanon, and
had one dream and one dream alone – to come to America, and make my fortune as
a capitalist. I did just that.
I studied
at The Wharton School, went to work at the most entrepreneurial firm on Wall
Street, Drexel Burnham Lambert, became a global entrepreneur-financier, and
made my mark dealing with some of the largest capital pools in the world,
orchestrating large scale buyouts and recapitalizations.
Today, the
Middle East is a very different place than the one I left 25 years ago. “This
isn’t your father’s Middle East,” a good friend with whom I do business in the
region loves to tell me.
And yet he
is disappointed that most Americans seem stuck in the 1970s when it comes to
how we think and describe the place – as if all Arabs are the same, none worthy
of our trust or respect.
Read More: Stupid Wake Up
Thank you,
