Hearing of enthusiastic property development plans for the world's tallest building? Then dust off, perhaps, an old but maybe not so tongue-in-cheek leading indicator...
Amazon is not reporting an increase in sales of Percy’s sonnets but it is looking like Shelley can add “market sage” to a cv already boasting the achievements of “renowned romantic poet” and “over enthusiastic practitioner of free love”.
For a place where the widespread use of postdated cheques represents a dangerous form of unofficial, unregulated credit expansion; and bouncing such cheques is a criminal offense (interesting comments at the foot of this TimeOut Dubai piece) it is painfully ironic that the Emirate now [...] 
Contrary to earlier reports from some Dubai government related entities, notably 31.2% publicly owned Emaar Properties whose tallest-in-the-world handy work is pictured below, it not only seemed a bad idea at the time. It, sadly, was.
A minority have implausibly puritanical levels of integrity.
A little cricketing truism goes "Everyone scores runs in Antigua. But only Lara breaks records."
From the Economist. Possibly not the antidote it might be for equities soaring on the back of massive public sector mortgages but interesting. Click the image to go there and see it in action:
A small island importing nearly 90% of its energy needs ought to be acutely concerned that its auction of offshore oil exploratory licences attracted but one successful bidder (BHP Billiton). A clarion call to governmental action stations, perhaps?
Some noticeable things on a recent trip to Helsinki. €7 beer. Habour-fulls of motor yachts, including a little US$200k/day Vincentian domiciled charter (includes a skipper and a chef - bargain). Handsome and clean buildings of mostly Swedish influence (though there is no concealing the occasional Soviet [...] 
I cannot say with certainty that British Airways' management are most responsible for the current dire accounting position the carrier finds itself in. But it is particularly interesting that CEO Mr Walsh leads a team that deems the public demonisation of their front line staff a' [...] 
Many interesting pics out moments ago from the Federal Reserve in the snappily titled report, Profits and Balance Sheet Developments at U.S. Commercial Banks in 2008. A sample, rearranged to tell their own story:
...released today:
A little chart from SG to chew over whilst waiting for this afternoon's US National Association of Realtors (NAR) existing home sales data:
...even in a book review piggy-backing on great work?
Since that story broke last week about Blackrock (maybe) muscling in on the iShares sale to CVC Capital Partners by swallowing the entire Barclays Global Investors (BGI) operation I have wondered what possesses the bank's board, in actual context, of the necessity to dump such an' [...] 
A photo like that was made for caption contests.
On the occasion of the upcoming release of the latest Star Trek movie, some internal promotion of this site's newsletter:
(*HT to an anonymous commenter at FT Alphaville for the adaptation)
Via Global Finance magazine (free sub here) this "mid year" 2009 list of the world's safest banks:
Barclays sponsoring reports on bank capital quality? From today's Wall Street Journal front page website - click for larger image to read the "Heard On The Street" tag in full:
As the afterglow of the G20 love-in fades there was something else worth considering this week: the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) decided yesterday to relax its mark-to-market rules.
Couple of tag clouds of the most recent G20 communiqué compared to that issued last November:
Markets aren't with Europe and US futures well up.
When it crossed the wire services yesterday I checked the calender wondering how I'd lost a day. The headline was:
It takes either courage, money or a moment of carelessness to hand back the wine list to a sommelier in a Michelin 3 star restaurant with the words "Etonnez-nous" ("surprise us").
From the New York Times - click to visit this piece of timely and clever creativity:
Despite the investigation dating to the back end of 2008 this brilliant story broke only today. The allegations are that Michelin, Total and Adidas have not simply been (illegally) evading Le Fisc but - according to the French Ministry of Finance - have been so naughty [...] 
This paper didn't make it past the 30 Rock production team and I have a feeling it would not have made the top of Mr Bernanke's, or any other quantitative easing-inclined central bank's, tivo recording list either.
Via Reuters DealZone blog, some sound advice from the Cayman Islands' Government to the private financial sector on handling those awkward Candid Camera moments from the nosy G20-inspired media...
"Tax havens" - one of the Great Sideshows of the G20 one angle of which is covered in this piece from Der Spiegel (includes the graphic at right).
...because you're about to live it. Minus the millionaire.'
Entertaining crib sheet from Rolling Stone called the Dirty Dozen (although they are currently only eleven filthies - Phil Gramm appears twice - and John Thain appears to be Ken Lewis' twin). An excerpt:
Off the usual topic but it would be remiss to let this pass.
Admittedly on partly sophomoric grounds but this story still caught my eye. The goal, of course, is noble: cheap prophylactics to fight AIDS in the developing world.
Last October Normura Research Institute Chief Economist Richard Koo spoke to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies about Japan's Great Recession as it related to the policy choices currently facing the US.
The Plan (via FT.com):
Nice little tour d'horizon from the perennially lucid Lloyd's Chief Economist Trevor Williams in this week's note "Aggressive quantitative easing is underway". Some charts:
It has been more than 40 years since Xerox was a go-go swinger stock untrusted by staid mutual fund managers. Yet that has not stopped Citi slapping a double-your-cash "buy" on the company following last Friday's profit warning "pre-announcement".
The US Conference Board released its Leading Economic Index data for February today under the tag "Negative Momentum Eases a Little". Their chart looks like this (via Briefing.com):
"Shock and awe" according to the Financial Times; and the Wall Street Journal has a neat roundup of professional economist opinion here.
Fabulous interactive charts from Dutch daily NRC Handelsblad. Click the graphic to go there:
Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Doug Shulman appeared before the US Senate yesterday with this news:"It is unfortunate in these otherwise difficult economic times that we are here today to discuss a situation where thousands of taxpayers have been victimized by dozens of fraudulent investment schemes.
" [...]
Once upon a time when financing was easy to come by and wild and wacky international takeovers were what got CEOs and their Boards - as well as their "facilitating" investment bankers - excited a noticeable protectionist wall began to appear. But what with the Supercycle, [...] 
Surely story of the month:
Yesterday an unfortunate chart appeared here suggesting that AIG had received a bailout package from the US taxpayer totalling $160bn. That was an error. The figure is actually $173bn.
What with a $787 billion stimulus bill passed, a $3.6 trillion 2010 federal budget tabled and a $410 billion spending bill under negotiation this article from the 28 February issue of The Week magazine came to mind:
With Allen Stanford generating even more interest in the media than his certificate of deposits there is nowhere in greater need of some cheer than Antigua where his offshore business headquarters sits and where 5% of the population are employed by him.
Close:
My chief concern this week is not financial markets where, in a continuing and remarkable piece of co-ordinated globalisation, authorities seem bent on convincing themselves, broken record-like, that spending other people’s money (the more the merrier) is the solution. No. There is a test match beginning [...] 
One of the gems of net-borne financial journalism is the FT's Short View currently assembled by John Authers. A couple of days ago he did a piece called Gold glitters once more in which this chart appears:
Restricted
Have a good one:
It must be Friday:
Last week the Le Monde graphic on job losses featured 
...one 
