Stories about Economics & Business from February, 2009
Armenia: No dollars in Yerevan
Life in the Armenian Diaspora reports that panicked citizens have been converting their local currency so frantically that there are now no dollars to be found at exchanges in the...
Hong Kong: Budget report: university students on sale!
Financial Secretary of Hong Kong John Tsang made the budget speech for the fiscal year 2009-2010 at the Legislative Council on 25 of February. This is the first budget report...
GCC: Currency Dilemma for Arab Gulf Consumers
The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) hopes to achieve a monetary union, with a common currency, by 2010. Bloggers from the region, which groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, debate the merits of the union and more importantly what name they want for their new currency.
Bermuda: Budget Response
From Bermuda, Vexed Bermoothes comments on the opposition's response to the government's 2009-10 Budget.
Guyana: The Ripple Effect
The far-ranging effects of the CL Financial failure have now reached Guyana. One blogger has been assiduously following the latest developments...
Armenia: Dollar Panic
The Armenian Observer reports that many in the country are rushing to change their local currency into dollars and limits have been introduced at currency exchanges.
Japan: Bloggers on the Nakagawa affair
Over a week has passed since now-infamous footage of Japan's former finance minister Shōichi Nakagawa stumbling through a 20 minute speech at the G7 meeting in Rome made world headlines and hit the top of YouTube charts. In this post I feature a handful of responses to the speech by Japanese bloggers.
Kazakhstan: Rally of the opposition
Zhanna writes a post about the rally staged by the leading Kazakhstani opposition party in Almaty.
Korea: Economic downturn and which companies have the best chances for survival.
While all of us hope the economic downturn is over soon, it seems that it’s a long term battle. Companies are cutting employees or decreasing their business scope. A netizen...
Nepal: Load Shedding Woes
For a country where there is an average daily power cut of 14 hours it is hard to carry on with normal life. Bibek Paudel discusses the challenges Nepal is...
Nepal: Strike Culture
Freedom In Bhutan discusses the strike cultures of Nepal and comments:”I wonder how illogical, non sensible and irresponsible have Nepalese grown to. I pray my countrymen Bhutanese will never call...
Aruba: Calling the Socialists
“Some Arubans are also affected because they invested in Stanford's company and are now, as we say in quaint Dutch, sitting with the baked pears”: Arubagirl examines her government's reaction...
Taiwan: CECA, economic elixir or poison?
CECA? Neither a new game console from Japan nor another evil science project that is going to bring this world to an end? But according to the Government, CECA is coming to save Taiwan's economy from drowning in global financial crisis and the greatest recession in 50 years. However, most people still have no idea what CECA is, and like all the other issues, it is quickly politicized as a new media battle ground set for the continuous fight between KMT, the ruling party, and DPP, the major opposition party. Bloggers again try to ask key questions and explain the issues deeper on their own.
Singapore: Copyright Act and blogosphere
ringisei is worried that the Copyright Act is being used to “strangle” the blogosphere in Singapore.
Zimbabwe: How Mugabe Steals
Denford Magora reveals how Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe amassed wealth during his tenure. I promised a few days ago to share with you information from impeccable sources on just how...
Barbados, Trinidad & Tobago: Injunction
Barbados Free Press finds it “interesting” that the Trinidad and Tobago Central Bank and the Colonial Life Insurance Company Limited (CLICO) have been granted an injunction against CL Financial.
Jordan: Economic depression?
“I don’t know what is going on lately, but I feel that everyone around me are in a hibernation mood. Businesses are not moving. Everything is running very slowly. People...
UAE: Dubail Out?
Grapeshisha discusses the impact of the global economic crisis on Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
Kuwait: Crowded Fair
Kuwaiti Marzouq attends a fair and shares his observations and photographs in this post.
Brunei: Fund drive for flood victims
As part of the efforts to collect donations for flood victims, charity drives have been organized in recent weeks in Brunei. The heavy downpour last month caused heavy floods and landslides in the country, affecting homes of more than 200 families, and destroying milllions of dollars in properties and crops.
Japan: Alpha Blogger Awards 2008 (Part 1)
On the 20th of February, the 2008 Alpha Blogger Awards were held in Tokyo. Sponsored by Pringles Chips, the event this year was attended by close to 80 people (including the team of GV Japan), awarding prizes to the twelve posts from the Japanese blogosphere in 2008 that received the most votes on the ABA site.
