http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/ In The Black RSS http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2010/05/fish-story.html Are fish farms a safe haven from the global economic turmoil? They apparently are for at least one investor. Amid a massive global sell-off yesterday, only one stock in Abu Dhabi finished in the green - the International Fish Farming... May 26, 2010 6:53 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2010/04/dubai-property-recovery-imminent.html The latest report from consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle about the Dubai property market is predictably bleak for the short term and sees a recovery coming by 2011 "at the earliest." The good news is that prices have largely stabilised. And... April 21, 2010 4:44 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2010/04/pulitzers-and-finance.html Liaquat Ahamed has a lot to say about global finance. (Photo by Andrew Councill / For The National)The Pulitzer board announced the winners of its annual prizes yesterday, and the 2010 winner in the "history book" category is Liaquat Ahamed,... April 13, 2010 6:26 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2010/03/dont-bounce-that-cheque.html The National reported today that banks in Dubai will within six months be able to report bounced cheques directly to the police, and that the system could eventually be used nationwide. The usual technical details are being ironed out, but... March 28, 2010 5:28 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2010/03/health-care-reform-passes-us-house.html Based on anecdotal evidence, there are a fair number of expat Americans living in the UAE at least in part over concerns about health care - that it's either too expensive back home or not available because insurance companies won't... March 22, 2010 9:31 AM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2010/03/bad-news-for-british-expats.html Bad news this week for British expats who retired to the UAE.The European Court of Human Rights ruled this week that British pensioners who retire here (as well as most other non-EU countries) are not entitled to inflation-linked increases that... March 17, 2010 2:23 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2010/03/the-shariah-compliant-scapegoat.html Kuwait's The Investment Dar (TID) is arguing in a London court that it does not have to pay back $10.7 million to Lebanon's Blom Bank because the deal, inked in 2007, was not Shariah compliant. TID, the troubled investment firm... March 6, 2010 4:36 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/12/resources-ride-again.html I admit to having a bias to commodities, partly because I grew up watching the sun set over vast dumps of mine waste (you had to be there). But also because I think it's so cool that dirt from the... December 10, 2009 5:54 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/12/just-because-its-cheap-it.html Just because it's cheap, it don't mean it won't get cheaper, my granny, who knew how to keep her pennies in her wallet, used to say. She would also give us kids a bar of Lifebouy soap each for Christmas,... December 8, 2009 5:52 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/12/nose-to-the-grindstone.html December 6, 2009 4:11 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/12/market-movers-1.html December 3, 2009 4:57 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/12/armageddon-postponed.html A bloke turns his back on the market for a week, taking a well-earned Eid break, and look what happens.But in spite of financial journals of every colour tracing a path from Dubai to the next financial Armageddon, the markets... December 1, 2009 4:04 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/11/surfs-up.html Now here's a business model you have to admire: take a hanky-sized piece of cloth, tack on the price tag of a tent, and sell it to feckless youth who want to stand out by fitting in.Billabong, the Australian beachwear... November 24, 2009 5:10 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/11/gold-no-longer-the-nutcase-investment.html November 23, 2009 3:56 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/11/the-cadbury-crunch.html Going down on my knees and groveling is no longer possible at my age, more for physical reasons than anything to with dignity. Thank goodness for chocolate. Nothing says, 'I'm sorry, and please don't make me spend another night on... November 22, 2009 5:29 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/11/silver-lining.html Is silver the next platinum? As Amran points out in his comment to the earlier gold post, low global supplies, and more industrial usage, mean silver may eventually do even better than bullion.For years, platinum enjoyed a second-class although respectable... November 21, 2009 12:37 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/11/chinese-checkers.html Everyone wants the Chinese to revalue their currency. As the dollar drops, so does the Chinese renminbi. Like Bonnie and Clyde, they go everywhere together, sometimes with horrible results for those who get in the way. It means no matter... November 19, 2009 3:03 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/11/mellow-yellow.html Gold likes to climb a wall of worry, they say, so right now it must be beside itself with anxiety.Gold bugs - as rabid a group of conspiracy theorists as there ever were - like to think their beloved metal... November 17, 2009 4:14 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/09/bofa-merrills-jonathan-moulds-the-uaes-measured-upside.html Jonathan Moulds was made president of Europe, Middle East, Latin America and Canada earlier this year at the newly merged Bank of America Merrill Lynch. He came to the merged company from Bank of America, where he had overseen banking... September 30, 2009 4:52 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/07/national-bonds-answers-your-questions.html So I did a post a while back about National Bonds, the UAE's savings-slash-raffle scheme, moving to weekly drawings (they had previously done monthly draws). A lot of readers had questions, so I posed them, along with a few of... July 8, 2009 3:11 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/06/going-bust-going-home.html We yammer on a lot about reform here in the UAE: how all sorts of things, from land sale registration to corporate boards, need to be brought up to international snuff. It's comparatively rare, though, that we get to attach... June 25, 2009 1:29 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/06/a-big-bad-bond-market.html A local bond market in the UAE got a big boost last week with the passage of a federal law that would establish regulations for the issuance of sovereign bonds. Pointedly, the law sets limits on how much the UAE's... June 18, 2009 5:18 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/06/revolving-door-huge-change-at-citigroup-in-the-middle-east.html Mohammed Shroogi, a 30-odd-year Citigroup veteran in the region, is resigning from his post at the mammoth bank and taking a job at Investcorp, an alternative asset manager based in Bahrain.It's a big move for Shroogi and an impressive grab... June 18, 2009 5:03 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/06/corporate-governance-laws-on-the-way-for-banks.html The UAE's Central Bank today issued a set of draft laws covering corporate governance at the banks it regulates. Boring stuff? Yeah, except it's also pretty important.It's important because it's an indication that the Central Bank is looking to put... June 18, 2009 4:26 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/06/2007june-24shuaa-announces-plans-to.html As promised, what follows is a detailed timeline (with links!) about the convertible bond Shuaa Capital issued to the Dubai Banking Group in 2007. You'll have to thank The National's super-organized Travis Pantin for this one:2007June 24Shuaa announces plans to... June 16, 2009 7:09 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/06/dubais-shuaa-capital-issues-250m-shares-dbg-wont-take-them.html This might sound a bit wonk-ish, but in the world of finance, it doesn't often get as dramatic as this: today, Shuaa Capital, an investment bank in Dubai, said it issued 250m shares to Dubai Banking Group to make good... June 16, 2009 11:22 AM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/06/big-gulf-conglomerates-feeling-the-pinch-too.html I'm a bit late on this one (apologies!), but I just want to point everyone to an excellent analysis piece by The National's own Travis Pantin. It's about the hard times that have befallen two large Saudi conglomerates - Saad... June 15, 2009 6:32 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/06/gulf-capital-moves-into-property.html Gulf Capital, an investment firm in Abu Dhabi, said today it has partnered with Related Companies, the developer of the $1.7bn Time Warner Center in New York City, to build up to five projects in Abu Dhabi and Riyadh over... June 14, 2009 6:59 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/06/11-worth-listening-to-analysts-in-the-uae.html Whether you're investing in local markets or merely watching them, analysts play an important role (or at least they're supposed to): they help you push past the basic give-and-take of daily news and reveal what it all means. They give... June 10, 2009 12:00 PM http://blogs.thenational.ae/in_the_black/2009/06/foreign-capital-floods-back-in.html The Gulf's appetite for foreign investment has long been a key part of its economic constitution. Until the financial crisis, it flowed like an open tap into the region, helping finance the rapid development of the non-oil sector. Dubai's massive... June 7, 2009 5:41 PM