Isis Inc: Loot & Taxes Keep Jihadi Economy Churning
December 15th, 2015
Via The Financial Times, a report on the role that looting and taxes play in keeping the terrorist movement funded: Even under jihadi rule, death and taxes remain the two great certainties of life. Some learn that the hard way. As Isis officials announced a religious tithe known as zakat last summer, Mansour, a 26-year-old grocery storekeeper in eastern […]
Read more »MTN: Syria Calling
August 7th, 2014
Courtesy of the Financial Times, a report on MTN’s plans to acquire a mobile phone license in Syria: Syria’s capital Damascus MTN is pressing ahead with plans to acquire a 20-year mobile phone licence in Syria, in spite of the four-year civil conflict in the Arab nation that has seen thousands killed. Africa’s biggest mobile […]
Read more »KFC Goes Missing In Syria
October 31st, 2013
Courtesy of The Atlantic, a report on KFC’s decision to give up trying to do business in Syria: Syrians eat at a KFC outlet in Damascus in 2006. It closed its doors this month. In 2006, Kentucky Fried Chicken opened Syria’s first American restaurant in Damascus. The franchise weathered more than two and a half […]
Read more »The Natural Gas Implications In Syria
September 4th, 2013
Via The Economic Collapse, an interesting look at the petroleum-based implications/potential causes of the Syrian crisis: Why has the little nation of Qatar spent 3 billion dollars to support the rebels in Syria? Could it be because Qatar is the largest exporter of liquid natural gas in the world and Assad won’t let them build […]
Read more »Getting Syria-ous About Oil
July 11th, 2010
Via Bloomberg, a report that Syria’s government has offered 74,000 square-kilometers of land, or 40 percent of the country, to international oil and gas companies for exploration. According to the article: “…In addition to new exploration on the land, the ministry is seeking the restoration of old wells where production ceased in the past several […]
Read more »Syria-ous Investment Interest
January 11th, 2010
Courtesy of The Wall Street Journal, an interesting report on Syria and western investors’ increasing interest in the country. As the article notes: “…As Syria emerges from its diplomatic isolation, it is receiving emissaries from a surprising locale: Wall Street. Late last year a group of big-name investors—including Bill Miller of Legg Mason Capital Management […]
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.