Word: bankes
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Inevitably, though, the laws of economics have reasserted themselves. Since oil prices plummeted, and world stock markets crashed last fall, some $75 billion worth of real estate projects have been suspended and canceled in Dubai, according to a report by the local branch of HSBC bank. Business journal the Middle East Economic Digest puts the figure at more than $300 billion. Postponed developments include the World, a luxury man-made island community designed to resemble a world map, and Dubailand, a theme park planned to be twice the size of Florida's Disney World. Housing prices have fallen...
Instead, government officials have responded in what has become the Sandinistas' standard reaction to criticism: triumphalism mixed with personal attacks. Sandinista lawmakers have accused Navarro of "economic terrorism" for questioning the bills' legality, and Central Bank president Antenor Rosales dismissed the criticism as the complaints of rich people "who are more accustomed to using debit cards and checks and don't care about the people." Said Rosales, "The Central Bank is profoundly satisfied with the excellent reception that the bills have had with the Nicaraguan population. Everywhere in Nicaragua the bills are being used...
Rosales defended the legality of the bills, insisting that legislation passed in 1995 gives the Central Bank "exclusive authority" to mint and print money. The number of signatures that appear or don't appear on the money is not important, he said. Critics, however, argue that the Central Bank's exclusive authority doesn't give it creative license to invent new styles of currency that stray from the technical specifications laid out in the Monetary Law. "The government couldn't just start circulating cacao beans and say it's currency like the indigenous did," says economist Nestor Avendano. "They have...
...huge problems. Major roads are still in need of repair; large towns still do not have safe tap water. Schools cannot provide students with textbooks, and civil servants grumble over the $100 monthly salary they receive. And Zimbabwe owes international financial organizations more than $1 billion. While the World Bank has agreed to resume aid to Zimbabwe for the first time since 2000 with a tentative $22 million grant, bigger loans will follow only after Harare retires its debt. (See pictures by James Nachtwey on some of the poorest people in the world, including in Zimbabwe...
Meanwhile, Tsvangirai accused Mugabe of making unilateral decisions in appointing senior government officials such as the attorney general, the central-bank head and diplomats. The Prime Minister's political party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), has since called on the Southern African Development Community - which brokered the power-sharing deal - to mediate between it and Mugabe's party, the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU-PF). The MDC has accused Mugabe and ZANU-PF of stonewalling on issues like the continuing arrests of pro-democracy activists, lawyers and journalists and the ongoing invasions of white-owned farms...