Obama bin White House Goes Upbeat on the Economy
THE TELEGRAPH: President Barack Obama has launched an upbeat strategy over the economy in the face of approval ratings that have dipped below those of George W Bush at the same stage of his presidency.

President Brack Hussein Obama realizes that being downbeat on the economy doesn’t pay. Photo courtesy of The Telegraph
Mr Obama is changing his rhetorical course after criticism from fellow Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton, that he has sounded too negative in the first weeks of his presidency.

This week he will speak forcefully to Congress and the public about the need to pass his $3.6 trillion budget, which will double the national deficit, while stressing his belief that there is hope ahead.

Mr Obama's sky-high approval ratings have fallen in the past couple of weeks amid widespread gloom over the economy. His approval rating is between 56 and 60 per cent, lower than George W Bush's at a similar stage of his presidency. Barack Obama Goes Upbeat on Economy After Popularity Declines >>> By Alex Spillius in Washington | Sunday, March 15, 2009

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Jeddah Legalizing Informal Economy
Kabsa is a famous dish from Saudi Arabia. Often made from lamb, it is also quite frequently made from chicken. In Jeddah, women will be able to make homemade foods and sell them outside the home. Photo of this chicken kabsa (كبسه والدجاج المحشي) courtesy of Google Images
ARAB NEWS: JEDDAH: Saudi women who make and sell homemade products are now able to legitimize their work. The Jeddah municipality will issue a special license for any woman who wants to operate a business from her home, according to a municipal official.

“Women who sell homemade cooking and handicrafts or intend to do any other business from their homes can obtain the license to make her work legal and flourishing,” said Mahmoud Kinsarah, head of the municipality’s Licensing and Commercial Monitoring Department. He was speaking at a press conference held yesterday to announce the launch of the 20th Environmental Health Forum, which will be held in Abruq Al-Righama next Saturday. >>> Hasa Hatrash | Wednesday, March 4, 2009

ARAB NEWS: We’ll Work to Protect Arab Women and Children: Adela

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia will mobilize its efforts to protect the rights of women and children in the Kingdom as well as in the Arab world, said Princess Adela bint Abdullah, vice president of the National Family Safety Program (NFSP).

“This is an important issue to address as most countries in the Arab world are affected,” said Princess Adela yesterday. >>> Mohammed Rasooldeen | Wednesday, March 4, 2009

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Iraq: God is the Remedy for Ailing US Economy, Shiite Cleric Says
LOS ANGELES TIMES: Iraq has gotten more than its fair share of advice from U.S. officials on just how to transform the restive Two Rivers region into a functioning democracy.

But now, as America seeks to escape a home-grown economic crisis, some Iraqis are speaking up with their own advice.

Such was the case during Friday prayers in Najaf, when Shiite preacher Sadr al-Deen al-Kubanchi sermonized over the state of American finances.

"The USA is about to collapse economically," the cleric predicted in a televised speech. "There are great factories firing thousands of their employees and decreasing their productions."

The cause of this crisis was clear, Kubanchi told worshipers. "The problem is not just the economy, but the detachment from religion and God." >>> Monte Morin in Baghdad | Sunday, January 25, 2009

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According to German-Led Team of Economists, Britain's Economic 'Miracle' Just a Sham
THE TELEGRAPH: Britain's economic resurgence over the last fifteen years has been driven by record levels of household debt and a public spending spree that cannot continue, according a German-led team of economists.

In a damning new report "More Mirage than Miracle" published by the free-market think tank Policy Exchange, the analysts said Britain was relapsing into high-tax and high-regulation sclerosis just as the rest of Europe begins to shake itself out of statist lethargy.

The country's underlying slippage has been masked by a housing boom that creates a false sense of wealth and encourages people to over-spend by drawing cash from their homes.

The British are resorting to a Faustian Pact that leaves many of them with an ever greater debt burden. German team damn UK economic 'miracle' as a sham (more) By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Mark Alexander

A Nation Divided by Riches: The Result of Thirty Years of Screwing the Poor – A Policy with Dire Long-Term Consequences
THE TELEGRAPH: The wealth gap is at its widest for more than 40 years, creating ghettoes of the richest and the poorest that have virtually nothing to do with each other, a report finds today.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation also found that in parts of the South-East the "average" family is an endangered species. The result has been an increase in "urban clustering" of poor people in cities with wealthy households concentrated on the outskirts. Income divide at widest for 40 years (more) By Christopher Hope

SUNDAY TELEGRAPH (19/02/2007):
Blair's wealth gap: voters want City bonus curb By Patrick Hennessy and Melissa Kite

The Jodeph Rowntree Foundation

TELEGRAPH SPEAKERS’ CORNER:
What can be done to heal Britain's economic divide?

I am all for people being able to become rich, but it seems to me that this country has encouraged unadulterated greed. There is no concern for the people who simply cannot get bonuses on the level of the City's so-called "high fliers". For most people, they just have to struggle along whilst a relatively small number at the top of the pile, simply because they have had the chance to enter the City or kick a football, get all the benefits. They cream it all off. This is not fair. And a country which encourages such unfairness will, in the long-run, live to regret it. Civil unrest will surely ensue.

They used to say that (absolute) poverty was the breeding ground for communism. I would go as far as to say that (relative) poverty could well become the breeding ground of communism, too. That beast - communism - is just lurking in the shadows. We need to be vigilant.

By creating a dependency culture, and at the same time allowing obscene pay rises, mega-golden handshakes (for jobs usually not well done), and even more obscene City bonuses, this government, and several governments before it, is setting the scene for an ugly future for us all.

Nobody is worth some of the ridiculous pay awards that some of these people are 'earning.' It is a total disincentive to work and effort for the vast majority, since they might as well give up, knowing darned well that they will never achieve such dizzy heights.

The world has been here before, albeit in smaller magnitude. We need to take heed. No society can be healthy when this group feels insulated and superior to that group. This is a recipe for division, bitterness, and strife, and takes the concept of capitalism to the Nth degree. – ©MA

Mark Alexander

Blair’s Legacy: Britons Are Spending More Than They’re Earning
THE TELEGRAPH: Watching many British consumers en route to a debt crisis has been like observing drivers of cars with faulty brakes, heading confidently towards the edge of a cliff. When alerted to looming disaster, these debtors and motorists kept giving the same reply: "Relax, everything's in control." Then, whooosh!

Over the past five or six years, cautious voices have warned eager borrowers that they were taking on far too much debt. Just because they could afford their monthly repayments (for now), it did not mean that "maxing out" on credit cards, overdrafts and mortgages was a smart move.

Unfortunately, too few consumers wanted to listen. Those of us who predicted a crash landing were dismissed as Cassandras. We didn't understand the new paradigm. Debt was cool, a financial fashion item. Saving was for wimps. Only fuddy-duddies and stick-in-the-muds didn't have debt.

Now, however, as the price of money rises and the pain of higher interest charges is beyond that which many troubled borrowers can tolerate (100,000 went bust last year), debt is starting to look decidedly démodé, the unattractive bling of bankrupts. The trouble is, we're stuck with £1,300 billion of it - and it's going up by £1 million every four minutes. Blair’s legacy is a nation engulfed by debt (more) By Jeff Randall

Mark Alexander

The Bush Legacy: Loss of Confidence in the Dollar
THE TELEGRAPH/Money: The euro has reached an all-time high against the yen and surged to $1.35 against the dollar, setting the stage for a battle between French politicians and the European Central Bank for control of the currency.

Jean-Claude Trichet, the ECB's president, gave a virtual guarantee that interest rates would be raised again to 4pc in June, narrowing the yield gap with the US. "I would not say today anything aimed at changing expectations for the month of June," he said.

Global currencies are going through a major realignment as Europe takes over as the engine of world growth and the US starts to trip, setting off an exodus from dollar assets. Super-euro may spark a currency war while French battle the ECB by Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

Mark Alexander