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Tech Titans act like banks and Trump’s misleading expectations

A few years ago, while I was trawling for information about financial risk and where it might be held, I had a fascinating conversation with an economist of the US Treasury’s office of Financial Research. The economist advised me to look at the debt offerings and corporate bond purchases being made by the largest, richest corporations, such as Apple...

China’s Belt and Road Initiative (B.R.I.) – but what happens when the belt gets tight and road gets bumpy – from Russian roulette to China roulette and the possible speculative financial death of Sri Lanka and Pakistan

China has spent nearly five years steering hundreds of billions of dollars toward a bold plan to gain greater global influence by funding big projects across Asia, Eastern Europe and Africa. Now Beijing is starting to tap the brakes. The value of the deals that Chinese companies are striking under the plan – called the Belt and Road Initiative (B.R.I.) –...

No matter in which direction India’s politics might change – we at Calvin·Farel are optimistic about the prospects that it remains the world’s fastest growing large economy in the next years

India by no doubt is an important country. It will soon be the world’s most populous. It has the world’s fastest growing large economy. Not least, it remains a vibrant democracy. What happens in India is going to affect everybody on the planet. What, then, are its economic prospects? Nas Narendra Modi, its prime...

Inventive Ventures and Calvin·Farel are jointly in the process of developing a 21st Century knowledge-and skill platform called “open-mind.ae” to support the “upskilling” of lost workforce in the Middle east as the youth of the region need to find a way to new skills to ensure a better future

Globally, there is a growing mismatch between employer vacancies and candidate skills. From Rio to Rome, San Diego to Saudi Arabia, hundreds of millions of unemployed, overqualified or underskilled workers do not have the relevant skill sets to fulfill specific roles today. This “lost workforce” represents lower productivity than could otherwise be achieved and...

Calvin·Farel and Inventive Ventures jointly focus on the lack of gig workers benefits through a new class of start-ups and platforms in the region of the Middle East

App-based marketplaces like Uber and Lyft for example have revolutionized the way people find work and earn income. Workers today can choose many kinds of short term and flexible jobs, whenever they want or need. Calvin·Farel and Inventive Ventures are currently developing under the “Future of Entrepreneurship” a platform business model for the region of...

Bank of England grapples with unpredictable risks of a no-deal Brexit

Central bankers in general have to live with unpredictability. But as much as possible, they prefer risks they can quantify. Monetary policy never deals with the certain, but it is relatively comfortable when handling known “unknowns”. What central bankers find very difficult to deal with is the kind of risk to the UK economy...

Saudi Arabia opens up its economy by introducing new investment guidelines to attract foreign direct investments (FDIs)

Saudi Arabia unveiled seven investment principles that include equality for foreign and Saudi investors as the Arab world’s biggest economy looks to attract global conglomerates to boost foreign direct investment. Established through a royal decree, the seven-point agenda will support the development of a competitive investment environment in the kingdom, which is going through a...

GCC’s job creation expected to slow this year – Calvin·Farel and Inventive Ventures through their business concepts are putting the young population at the heart of Middle East economies

Job creation and employment growth across the Middle East and GCC is expected slow in 2019 due to subdued non-oil growth despite higher government spending plans, according to rating agency Moody’s. Moody’s analysts expect overall GDP growth in the GCC to remain broadly unchanged this year, at 2.3% on average. The cuts in oil production...

The overall challenges and an outlook of the year 2019

The year 2019 was never going to be an easy one for markets. Between the record amount of corporate debt, trade conflicts between the US and China, and the fact that we are almost 10 years into a recovery cycle – the time when economic slowdowns typically occur many of us have been expecting...

How US banks took over the financial world during the last decade and how European national champions could regain vigour through mergers with rivals

After the fall of Lehman Brothers 10 years ago, there was a public debate about how the leading American banks had grown “too big to fail”. But that debate overlooked the larger story, about how the global markets where stocks, bonds and other financial assets are traded had grown worrisomely large. By the eve of the 2008 crisis, global financial...

Rising interest rates in the US and the impact of massive government debts might provide the path for the next global financial crisis – the introduction of possible three policy reforms which could help the GCC countries to be prepared in advance of the next financial crisis

  • US
These are great times to be paid in US-Dollars. The world’s unofficial reserve currency is on a roll, beating all comers as the US economy grew at an annualize rate of 4.2% in the second quarter of this year. To put that into perspective, that is almost double the eurozone second-quarter growth of 2.1%. The US economy is now...

How India’s Government seeks to rein American tech giants influence on their continent and how we plan to access the Indian market

In India, American companies dominate the internet. Facebook’s WhatsApp is the most popular app on phones. Virtually every smartphone runs on Google’s Android system. YouTube is the favorite video platform, and Amazon is the No.2 online retailer. For some Indian political leaders, it is as if their nation – which was ruled by Britain for a century until 1947 –...

Ten years after the financial crisis; Calvin • Farel’s summary

Ten years ago this weekend, the failure of Lehman Brothers brought the international financial system close to collapse. The shock triggered a global recession that narrowly avoided becoming a depression. It caused banking crises in two dozen counties and brought in its wake the eurozone debt crisis, austerity and stagnation. Millions lost their jobs and homes. A decade later, the...

Second Thought – let us try to make sense of the unknown by analyzing the known – let us put the facts together – let us learn from history and let us try to make sense by visualizing the future: of our current economical and political situation

Global trade relations are currently moving in opposite directions. While US President Donald Trump’s administration is trying to impose new restrictions on its trade with the rest of the world – especially its main partners such as the EU, China and Japan – there are other influential powers with great leverage in trade ties seeking a further liberalization. The US has recently...

Second thought – what really caused the escalation between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Canada in the beginning of August and what the West can learn from it?

This month, the Saudi government expelled the Canadian ambassador from Riyadh, and canceled flights, educational exchanges, and trade and investment activities between the two countries. This crisis was precipitated by a tweet – published both in English and, crucially, in Arabic on August 3 from the Canadian foreign ministry saying it was “gravely concerned” about the arrest of women’s rights activists...

Mr. Xi Jinping and China’s move towards historic power grab and global influence and control over the Asian region and the internet

President Xi Jinping is poised to make a historic power grab as China’s legislator gather to approve changes that will let him rule indefinitely and undo decades of efforts to prevent a return to crushing dictatorship. This year’s gathering of the ceremonial National People’s Congress has been overshadowed by Xi’s surprise move to end constitutional two-term limits on the presidency. The...

How Inventive Ventures combines the desire of convenience with personal ambitions in their business models in 21st century

Convenience is the most underestimated and least understood force in the world today. Convenience is boring. But boring is not the same as trivial. In the developed nations of the 21st century, convenience-that is more efficient and easier ways of doing personal tasks-has emerged as perhaps the most powerful force shaping our individual lives and our economies. This is...

Inventive Ventures – its strategy and vision to participate in the 4th Industrial Revolution through its brain factory and its platform jump starter from the Middle East towards the world with its strategic partner: Calvin・Farel

In the past we always thought technology products would always be a force for good. We were lured by their convenience and ease-of-use; by the idea of free access to everything and everyone. We did not see and did not focus on the dark side until it was too late. By then, most consumers were already addicted,...

India on the right track- the 21st century belongs to India and Modi

At the sixth edition of the world Government Summit in Dubai, India was the guest country and Prime Minister Narendra Modi a keynote speaker. This was Modi’s second visit in less than two years and comes on the back of his hugely successful previous visit of 2015 which in itself was a landmark for no other prime minister...