Word: interested
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...Furthermore, new research suggests that a key assumption made in creating monetary incentives for loan modifications - that economic self-interest would make firms eager to modify loans - may be wrong. Economists at MIT and the Federal Reserve banks of Boston and Atlanta have found that about 30% of borrowers who become seriously delinquent on their payments later catch up. A big deal has been made of the redefault rate - the high number of borrowers who wind up missing even modified payments - but the new finding about the large percentage of loans that "self-cure" indicates that servicers might actually...
There is a catch, though. As Timbuktu opens to outsiders and word of its treasures spreads, so too does the interest in the books from outside collectors. In some ways, saving these old manuscripts could imperil them further. In decades past only the hardy visited Timbuktu; the journey required days of travel up the malaria-infested Niger River. Today, dozens of tourists arrive several times a week on small commercial planes from Bamako, the capital of the former French colony. Timbuktu has become a favorite jumping-off point to explore the world's biggest desert. As the modern world rushes...
...Isolation The flurry of projects and interest has boosted Timbuktu's tourism trade. The driver who meets me at the tiny airport introduces himself (in perfect English) as "Jack - like Jack Bauer [from television's 24]." Crowds of Europeans converge every January to attend the musical Festival of the Desert in nearby Essakane. And young locals - armed with French and English - ply their trade as guides for adventure tour groups. (See pictures of the Festival au Desert in Mali...
...Timbuktu's children decide to sell the manuscripts, there will be nothing to stop them. Unlike antiquities laws which protect old carvings, for example, Mali has no law barring people from taking manuscripts out of the country. As international interest in the works grows, so too could their value on the world market, according to some experts. In 1979, Zouber, the President's counselor, bought 25 Timbuktu manuscripts from the daughter of a former French diplomat who had been stationed in Mali and had taken them with him when he left; Zouber tracked her down in Cannes and paid about...
...Baghdad act now? The sudden escalation with Ashraf may have more to do with a bruised Iranian regime's bid to stamp out its opponents both at home and abroad than with any pressing Iraqi national interest. Iran's regime - roiled by continuing postelection unrest at home that poses the most serious threat to its rule since the 1979 Revolution - may have finally put its foot down regarding the MEK. (See pictures of the turbulent aftermath of Iran's presidential election...