This weekend Kuwait's government bailed out the country's second largest bank , Gulf Bank, guaranteeing all its deposits. (I’d be interested to know why this article from the Kuwait Times puts the word “losses” in scare quotes). Yesterday, Kuwaiti traders staged their second walk out of the past week (they walked out Thursday as well; Kuwait's market trades Sunday through Thursday). The governments of Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia are both prepared to step in and support banks in their respective nations. The GCC countries plan to introduce a value added tax (VAT) of 5% on consumer goods starting in 2012 as insurance against falling oil prices; 2012 looks to be a long way away given the 60% drop in oil prices since July.
Since the Gulf countries aren't known for their robust democracies but rather for their high oil revenues and the consequent rentierism those revenues enable, it will be interesting to observe the ways they choose to deal with their diminished ability to avoid taxing their citizens. Will the global economic slump prove destabilizing for any of these countries?
A few months ago, I wrote about the early stages of the conflict in Ukraine through the lens of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. While it appears likely that the war will carry on into the foreseeable future, enough time has passed for us to make an honest assessment of each side’s relative […]
The Ukrainian Army has made dramatic strides in the last few weeks. Ukraine’s tactical commanders have outfoxed their Russian counterparts, and by issuing a feint towards the south the UA has been able to earn substantial gains in the north of their country. The impact of these efforts have been compounded by the steady stream […]
In mid-May the Irish political party, Sinn Féin, won the plurality of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Many American readers might not fully understand the significance of Sinn Féin’s political victory- but rest assured that subjects of the United Kingdom and a wide range of political movements the world over have heard the message […]
The first wave of the Russian offensive in Ukraine has fallen short of Russian autocrat Vladmir Putin’s ambitions. Most analysts deduced that Putin had hoped to achieve a decapitation strike of the Ukrainian government- taking Kiev and replacing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zolinski with a pro-Kremlin voice. Kiev has been threatened repeatedly through the course of […]
On the weekend of March 26th, the notorious MS-13 gang went on a massive killing spree in El Salvador which left more than 70 people dead by Sunday. Even for a country where powerful gangs hold massive sway, this recent tragedy stands out considering that it was the bloodiest day on record since the civil […]
