The Silent Erosion of Afghanistan’s Urban Middle Class
February 26th, 2024
Via The Diplomat, a report on how – while the focus on Afghanistan tends to revolve around geopolitical tensions and security concerns – the slow erosion of the urban middle class is sending the country decades backward: In the wake of the Taliban’s rise to power, a critical aspect of Afghanistan’s socioeconomic landscape has been […]
Read more »Taliban’s Focus On Infrastructure Development
February 20th, 2024
Via Eurasia Review, a report on the Taliban’s focus on infrastructure: The Taliban have advertised their efforts towards infrastructure development over the last two years, since taking over power in August 2021. The Taliban Deputy Minister of Economy Abdul Latif Nazari stated in August 2023 that “overall 3575 development projects of $1.9 billion have been […]
Read more »How an Afghan Drug Kingpin Became Beijing’s Business Partner in Kabul
February 11th, 2024
Courtesy of Foreign Policy, a report on Bashir Noorzai – who was once serving a life sentence in the United States – is now the key conduit for growing business ties between China and the Taliban: A drug kingpin whose heroin empire helped fund the Taliban’s long war in Afghanistan—and who was released early from […]
Read more »Afghanistan: Critically Important Trade Route For Kazakhstan
January 23rd, 2024
Via The Diplomat, a report on Afghanistan’s market and its position as a trade route that can connect Central Asia to South Asian ports are critically important to Kazakhstan: As the global community experiences a turbulent and unpredictable period, Kazakhstan, alongside other countries, faces a range of challenges and risks. A timely reorientation and adjustment […]
Read more »The Taliban’s Curious Love of SIM Cards
January 16th, 2024
Via Rest of World, commentary on how Afghanistan’s extremist rulers learned what all governments now know: SIM cards are worth every penny: A few months ago, Pakistan began forcibly deporting thousands of Afghans who had fled over the border when the Taliban returned to power in 2021. They returned to an Afghanistan engulfed by poverty, […]
Read more »As Afghan Economy Struggles, Taliban Increasingly Looks To Go It Alone
December 22nd, 2023
Courtesy of The Washington Post, an article on the Afghan economy: More than two years after the Taliban’s takeover, its internationally isolated government is pushing ahead with a plan to make the Afghan economy more self-sustaining, if not outright self-sufficient. Afghan officials are overseeing the construction of dams and canals to boost agriculture, and tunnels […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.