Monday, March 26, 2007

The seeds of capitalism’s own destruction are being sown!

It was reported in the Financial Times on Saturday last week (March 17, 2007) that Aston Martin (James Bond’s favourite sports car) has been sold by Ford Motor to a consortium which is to finance the LBO (leveraged buy-out) according to strict Islamic principles. This deal appears to be the deal they don’t want you to know about, since it has hardly been reported in the mainstream media at all.

Ford Motor agreed to the sale for £479m to a consortium organised by Dave Richards, a motor racing entrepreneur.

The financing of this LBO “will be financed in an exclusively shariah-compliant way”, David Testa said, the executive director of West LB, the German bank appointed to arrange £225m of the quasi debt finance to back the LBO. It is believed that this is the first time that Islamic finance has been used in the West for an LBO. The Islamic financial focus has arisen because Investment Dar and Adeem Investment Co are two Kuwaiti groups that invest in accordance with Shari’ah principles of investment, which eschew, of course, conventional Western, capitalist-style financing arrangements.

It is said that there is a rapid growth in the Islamic finance sector, a sector which is said to have grown substantially and is said to have assets already in excess of $300bn, or approximately £155bn, worldwide. Further, it is worth noting that Western investment banks like West LB, Deutsche Bank, Citigroup, and Barclays are becoming more and more involved in Islamic finance, too.

The Financial Times went on to say that we shall have to wait and see to know whether these financiers will also ban “factors deemed to be non-Koranic” such as “martini-swilling spies to market the iconic brand”.

It should be noted that it would seem fair to say that the 'great and the good' in the world of Western finance have little realisation of the implications of their greed, or else, if they do, then they are insouciant about them. For capitalism, this really must be a step in the wrong direction. The élite in the business world seem not to realise, still less understand, that Islamic economics is not the same as Western capitalism. These two economic systems are diametrically opposed, just as Islam is diametrically opposed to Judeo-Christianity.

It is sad to say that we are sowing the seeds of our own destruction, and the people at the top are too dumb to see it!

CNBC World - Islamic Finance: Applying religion to economics



©Mark Alexander

6 comments:

mirrorman said...

Here is something I read from a spam from an investment setup.
I cannot verify it's veracity but is this what we could interpret as another of the fronts of the "take-over bid" of the West by the Saudi inspired cartel?


""the economics team at financial giant UBS just said in a proprietary, landmark report:

* OPEC is now spending 83% of its $629 billion in revenues from oil, compared with 1974, when it was spending only 27% of its petrodollars...

Fact is, OPEC's gone crazy, spending its wealth on everything. And that accounts for a whopping $522 billion this year alone, fueling new business and markets in every corner of the globe - including the U.S.

Added to 'industrial money,' this total of $867 billion is still just a trickle of what's to come...""

"" * This explosion of money is estimated to increase by $82 trillion by 2010.iv That's trillion with a 't.' ""
""This expansion is already fueling profits in nearly every corner of the globe, including the U.S. It's never been more important to get in now on this wave of super fast-growth stocks propelled by this raging wall of cash.""

If only partly accurate,
I think that perhaps this raging wall of cash may become a wailing wall of crisis in the future.

Global Capitalism need not be led by one-eyed greed. The enemy is seeing the chinks in our armor, and the rust has set in.
Imagine a future where not only will we have millions of those that hate the infidel amongst us, but when many of our major corporations will be dependent on the disposable cash mountains of the desert sheiks!
And our banking system already shariaised and compliant.

Mark said...

Imagine a future where not only will we have millions of those that hate the infidel amongst us, but when many of our major corporations will be dependent on the disposable cash mountains of the desert sheiks! And our banking system already shariaised and compliant.

It doesn't bear thinking about, does it, Mirrorman?

Mark said...

Those figures you quote are both staggering and frightening, Mirrorman.

Always On Watch said...

The descent of the West is accelerating. We have economic jihad too!

mirrorman said...

http://www.faithfreedom.org/oped/sina51103.htm
with friends like these.

Mark said...

Always:

The descent of the West is accelerating. We have economic jihad too!

Yes, it's like TOTAL war against the West; and Westerners are being oh so compliant! We're playing into the enemy's hands. GREED is a powerful motivator!