The Iraqi government, with help of air cover and air strikes by coalition forces, has launched a major assault, codenamed “Galloping Horses” on Muqtada al-Sadr’s militia, otherwise known as Jeish al-Mahdi [The Army of al-Mahdi (al-Mahdi is the Shiite Messiah, a hidden savior...

Officials from the US Treasury and the governments of Abu Dhabi and Singapore. The US Treasury Department took two important decisions last week that could have significant impact on the economies at both ends of the Persian Gulf. The first decision dealt with sovereign wealth funds (SWFs)....

The concept of unintended consequences is one of the building blocks of economics. Adam Smith’s “invisible hand,” the most significant metaphor in social science, is an example of positive unintended consequence. Smith maintained that each individual, seeking only his own gain,...

The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corp (IRGC), also known as Pasdaran, was created in 1979 by Ayatollah Khomeini to defend the Islamic revolution from both foreign and domestic enemies, and to assist the ruling clerics in the day-to-day enforcement of the government’s Islamic codes and...

This morning, as if on cue, Arab press in the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council printed lengthy articles and analyses on the need for two interrelated strategic economic policies: ending the Gulf countries’ currency peg to the dollar, and ending the pricing of oil in that...