The US dollar is losing its shine as rivals emerge to stake a claim. It is not only the euro but also the Chinese currency, the yuan that are challenging dollar’s supremacy in global finance.
With the collapse of the western financial system, Muslim economists have an excellent opportunity to present the model of Islamic Iqtisad to provide social and economic justice to all. They will also find a ready audience among non-Muslims.
The economic decline of the US is beginning to affect women.
During the course of the past 18 months the world in general and the Muslims in particular were watching the movement of people and the counter-movements of regimes.
The US is in terminal decline. Its economy is shattered and there is little prospect of recovery, at least in the near future.
Perhaps the most comforting thing in a revolution, in the midst of angst, bloodshed, and existential fear, is food. Steaming hot victuals, nourishing a tired body; the pleasure of breaking bread with compatriots in arms, cementing the fellowship you have formed under the hail of bullets, police batons, and clouds of tear gas.
It is an open question whether the Occupy Wall Street Movement will achieve its objectives. Launched on September 17, it has not only lasted much longer than most observers had anticipated, it has also gone global. On October 15, there were rallies in 82 countries worldwide from east to west and north to south.
As for the US economy, despite optimistic statements by President Barack Obama that it is on the mend — what else can he say? — statistics paint a very different picture.
Most Americans are led to believe that their country is the richest and the best in the world. It is a land of milk and honey and of limitless opportunities. There is little doubt that the US has enormous wealth; with a GDP of $17 trillion, it is by far the richest country in the world but is this wealth fairly distributed?
This, however, is a superficial look at global reality. After all, the Soviet Union was also a superpower armed with nuclear weapons and had the largest air force in the world when it invaded Afghanistan on December 27, 1979...
Every day brings more bad news about the state of the US economy, and indeed that of much of the rest of the world. Not only is America’s economy the largest in the world, its currency—the dollar—is also the global reserve currency with 63 percent of the world’s central bank reserves held in dollars.
There was always something surreal about Dubai’s fantastic development plans. Skyscrapers were rising in the desert faster than anybody imagined was possible. While some wondered about such rapid growth, others marveled at the plucky Dubaians’ go-get attitude. Nothing was considered out of reach;
By the time these lines are read, the US presidential election would be over. Current trends suggest Barack Obama would be the next president unless some unforeseen catastrophe or electoral fraud like those in 2000 and 2004 occur. Obama will inherit the biggest economic mess in US history since the 1930s depression. How did the US, the largest economy in the world, come to such a sorry state?
Israel’s continuing economic crisis was brought to attention on February 4, when some 50 Israeli business leaders in Tel Aviv called for a broad governing coalition, despite the landslide victory on January 28 of the right-wing Likud Party, led by prime minister Ariel Sharon.
Prime minister Mahathir Mohamed of Malaysia may have made a strategic political blunder by tying his political future to solving the deepening currency and stockmarket crisis. He has thus handed his detractors the opportunity to undermine his position.
