Of inhuman bondage: the bond market has policymakers in its grip.
Stanley Druckenmiller does not come across as a life-of-the-party kind of guy. He rarely gives interviews, but when he does the word "dour" is the inevitable modifier. One profile reported that he went to bed at 8:30 p.m. on weekends. But for Druckenmiller, a lack of color is no...

PROCEEDING WITH CAUTION.
Buoyed by excellent profits and increased lending opportunities in 1997, banks in the Gulf are preparing for a spate of changes that are likely to dramatically affect the sector during the next few years. Opportunities are growing for the well managed institutions to take a larger regional...

Hammer and Company.
The Personal Touch in Portfolio Management Sarasota investment advisor Mark Hammer, president of Hammer and Company, prides himself on maintaining a very personal approach in what can be an impersonal and competitive business. To Hammer, understanding clients' lifestyles and goals is essential to managing their money, and he takes...

The real lesson of the Asian meltdown: too bad nobody's listening.
Truth be told, most Americans dislike their bank. Long lines, surly tellers, obscene ATM fees, and a wait of anywhere from three days to 30 years for a check to clear have combined to make banks a source of minor irritation for most consumers. The banking system, however, is another...

Get smart about inflation.
For a moment this spring, madness was rampant. Whitewater crowded health care and education off the front pages; Barry Goldwater told the Republicans to get off Clinton's back; John Bobbitt announced he's marrying again. Most important, the Federal Reserve and Wall Street went bananas as rising interest rates sent...

Egypt sell off.
Egypt's massive privatisation programme will target insurance, banking and telecoms. Egypt's remarkable privatisation programme is accelerating rapidly with the announcement of government sell-offs in such vital sectors as insurance, banking and telecoms as well as industry, tourism, construction and trade. Foreign investors are also increasing their presence...

Fed up: the problems of the Federal Reserve.
IT WAS THE MOST STRIKING IMAGE OF Bill Clinton's first speech to Congress. Every news report mentioned it: Hillary Clinton, dressed in a bright red suit, flanked on one side by John Sculley, CEO of Apple Computer, and on the other by Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve. Bill...

Time for (James) Tobin! ... how a tax on financial speculation could help stabilize global markets and capture ... funds for global development.
On 23 March 1999 the Canadian Parliament voted to `enact a Tobin Tax in concert with the international community'. For three intense months people from across the country had written letters, signed petitions, penned newspaper articles and spoken out at public meetings. And now we had won. Canada had...

Bahrain as a business centre.
The island of Bahrain is the country with the region's smallest energy reserves. This apparent disadvantage has always obliged it to be resourceful in exploiting alternative economic opportunities. Today, business confidence is encouraged by efforts to promote foreign investment and expand capital markets. In this survey of Bahrain's economy, Michael...

Gekko: Wall Street.
'LET's see now . . . the Japanese got in trouble by overspeculating in financial markets, so now they are going to bail themselves out by overspeculating in financial markets?" Bond people like my Chicago friend are so cynical. But it does look as if the Japanese establishment is going...