Virtually unlimited access to cheap money blurs lines between what makes economic sense and what doesn’t. If it can be financed it will be built. Dubai’s plan to diversify away from petrochemicals made sense. Maybe it is even destined to become the Las Vegas of the Middle East, the Mecca of business travel and luxury.
Dubai, [...]

When I was invited to give a presentation in March about my book to South African CFA Society members in Cape Town and Johannesburg, to say that my expectations for South Africa were low is a tremendous understatement.   Click here to see pictures from this trip (opens PDF).
Preparations included a visit to my doctor where [...]

This weekend’s papers provided new signs of global economic slowdown. The first came from Japan. For the first time in 26 years – a long time – Japan became a net importer (imports exceeded exports). FT article sums it up:
The contraction was led by plunging sales of Japanese cars and trucks in a weak US [...]