5th Floor Debates Series – Volume 1

Do you believe that competition is a prerequisite for progress? That humanity will continue to develop and evolve in the absence of a self-serving mind-set or a perpetual desire to outdo? Can a cooperative greater good themed mindset be the next big thing? Would it be sustainable? How would the change come about? We would...

True Calling

Hey, This is an attempt at using this blog's limited readership base to make some magic happen. I am dying to teach university in Cairo. I would love to teach economics, public policy or intro to consulting. I am flexible on the University. If you can help please do!

Made To Order

At the end of 2006, Time magazine declared the reader, the individual, the average Joe; the Man of the Year. It was a testament to the overwhelming growth in user-generated content that took the world by storm during that year. Social media platforms were empowering individuals, like me and you around the globe to become...

صندوق دعم مصر 306306

Updated! Since Nerro asked. Here is my take on http://www.youm7.com/News.asp?NewsID=1149794 While I think it is nice that the business community is excited about contributing I have some concerns about the format. 1. As far as I can tell, it is a privately set up fund. I am yet to hear any commentary from the transitional government in...

Random Economic Musings

I am writing this because I bumped into the very talented Tarek at an entrepreneurship forum and he asked for my 2 cents on things. The following lines are not based on any scientific nor quantitative analysis and are instead the musings of a former economist. In the following months the foreign exchange situation will...

The Economics of Life

My TEDx day-view 🙂 I am indebted to the organising team for their passion and the attendees at the BA for making my day in my city by the sea unforgettable. Your individual feedback was heart warming and extremely touching. For those interested in the actual slides, they are downloadable here: The Economics of Life - Inji Amr...

Economic Awareness Videos

Ever since I'd seen the Crisis of Credit awareness video & I have been obsessing about & dreaming of doing a series of similar videos in Arabic explaining economic concepts to the non-economists & making the newspaper headlines relevant to the average citizen. I've been in the search for a cooperative & collaborative cartoonist for...

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

You know your job is taking over your brain when the most memorable quote from a murder mystery is one about the economy. Here you go: The idea that Sweden's economy is headed for a crash is nonsense. . . .You have to distinguish between two things--the Swedish economy and the Swedish stock market. The...

Revised Egypt 2011/ 2012 budget

MOF has issued a powerpoint summary of the revised Egypt 2011/2012 budget. You can go through it here. Meanwhile, blog post deferred till I can update the presentation to reflect changes in the budget.

The Million Dollar Question

So the twitter timeline yesterday and my budget awareness session the day before were filled with one question. Where do the Suez Canal revenues go? They don't appear anywhere on the budget. So I took the question to the Ministry of Finance. Their responses are as follows: Suez canal revenues are balance of payments revenues,...

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To whom it may concern, I'm giving an economic awareness session on Sunday the 26th at Tahrir Lounge (5 El Bostan Street, Goethe building downtown) at 6 pm. The session is entitled "Egyptian government budget, jargon, values and possible implications". Session is targeting the non-economists and will basically be an introduction to the concept of...

Egypt 2011/2012 Budget

So Zeinboia gives me the heads up about an invitation from the ministry of finance to discuss the new budget proposal with Dr. Samir Radwan and his advisers. Apparently invitation was made to some of the youth coalitions and some of the twitter economists. I had whined on twitter all morning about wanting to attend...

Egyptian Economy : What I would do

I've been asked to offer my 2 cents quite a bit, so here, all my cents in one post. I am not claiming there is an absolute truth when it comes to economics, yet this post is about what I would do if I were calling the shots to steer this economy to a safe...

Stock Market Kaman we Kaman

For those of you adamant on investing in the stock market, some words of advise from one of the most prestigious economics and financial economics professors at the AUC. (I don't have explicit permission to cite her name, so out of respect opting to maintain her anonymity). While she agrees that at the end this...

Karim Abadir on the Egyptian Economy

The article below was written by Professor Karim Abadir. I find his view interesting albeit excessively optimistic. I am sharing the article for your reference as I will soon be posting  a Q&A discussion between me and him about it. Cheers. Any revolution is bound to have an impact on the country where it happens,...

100 LE to Save the Egyptian Economy

*Disclaimer - Update: The views reflected below tackle the notion of investing 100 LE in the secondary stock market, I exempt from that view purchasing T-bills in the primary market or any primary market purchases for that matter. I hate to make a tired point. I had laid this investing in the stock market issue...

Thawra Shirts

Apparently it didn't take enterprising Egyptians long to have a series of revolution themed t-shirts and memorabilia. I've seen three groups already and counting. Manshourat offers a variety of t-shirts, pins and coffee mugs. Part of the proceeds go to charity. Visit their facebook group to view the collection, yet following smashing success, online ordering is...

Tourism Egypt

According to the World Travel and Tourism Council, the contribution of Travel & Tourism to Gross Domestic Product in Egypt was around 13.0% (EGP154.7bn or US$26.7bn) in 2010. The sector's contribution to employment was 2,543,000 jobs in 2010, which is around 10.9% of total employment or 1 in every 9.2 jobs. The point I'm making...

Some Business Suggestions

In my humble opinion, it is a time for entrepreneurship, starting SMEs, creating jobs and output. For example, we could decide to volunteer to clean the streets and paint the walls (a scenario where we don't go to work and nobody makes money). Or we could decide to start a small company that does that,...

Guide to Economic Recovery

Kindly check your political views at the door. Many of you have been calling and e-mailing asking for my "economic" view on what's happening, forecasted impact on the economy and what can be done. I would much prefer to focus on the last point because worrying and fretting about impact is a useless exercise while...