This podcast was especially interesting from the information decimation and transparency standpoint.
The interviewer Kanes is attempting to gather information about the overall and fundemental well being of UAE. They meander through the vagurities of differentiating between Abu Dubi and Dubai as cities of influence. Jabar consistantly deflects questions about the ruling class and their internal machanatians. More importantly he references the lack of data, consistancy in statistics and any transparency into the fundementals of these Arab states economies. He simply acts as if the data doesn't exist. "This is a problem..." Really. Rather than demonstrating any ethical understanding of the background for this very apparent lack of objective measures and metric he deceptively implys that these countries are working on it. He also confused the nouns UAE and GCC as if they were interchangable.
See: http://www.arabicnews.com/ansub/Daily/Day/981020/1998102071.html
This was an eye opening interview for me, it shows that many countries have gained an unfair advantage because of the transparency and openness of the US markets. However they certainly don't find the need to reciprocate. In fact it is the limited use of infomration that is their competitive advantage and any funds investing in these countries are at their whim. In fact I would be hard pressed to invest any capital in a closed economy without specific inside information. But then again how is this any different than the domestic traders...
From them geopolitical and international standpoint it demonstrates that US firms are playing a game at a severe disadvantage. It's as if one player in a poker game can hide five cards in their hand while using 4 community cards with the other must display their five card hand publicly. Their is simply a clear information inequity.
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