GIVEN how many soothsayers there are in the financial industry, at least one of them should have yelled from the crowd to warn Cyprus of the Ides of March. OK, so the comparison with the assassination of Julius Caesar is a bit over the top. But the meeting of the European Union, International Monetary Fund and European Central Bank in Brussels on March 15, was just as fateful for Cyprus, and contained an element of drama: a key part of the bailout plan was much rumoured, and plotted behind closed doors, with hardly anyone believing it would come to pass..............Download the full article in pdf attachment (below)

After three years of fault-finding, a standard script has emerged of the 2008 financial crisis that blames everything on the banks.

 

"Script" is not just a metaphor. Third place in the 2011 Oscar for best documentary was Inside Job, which, as the title suggests, points a stabbing finger in the eye of a conspiratorial Wall Street. The storyline is straightforward: financial firms co-opted regulators ("institutional capture", in the jargon) to let them take outrageous liberties with borrowed money, including lending to an unbelievable number of mugs who could not repay.......... Download the full article in pdf attachment (below)

To the anxious question of what will happen to Afghanistan when foreign troops leave in 2014, Dr Abdul Qayum Mohmand had an unexpected answer. "Nothing will happen," the former University of Afghanistan assistant professor said. "Because nothing is happening now."

 

Before a somber seminar on the country's future in Petaling Jaya, Selangor, last week, Mohmand tried to lighten his pessimism by exaggerating for effect. But between the candour and humour of his chat at the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies Malaysia was a sorrow that could not be concealed by bluffness........ Download the full article in pdf attachment (below)