The Gambian Banker

By Philip Emeagwali

According to history books, gun-wielding European slave traders kidnapped one in five Africans and transported them across the oceans to the Americas. A less visible, but no means less drastic technological tool of suppression, is the compass, a device used worldwide for navigation. In the same way that Britain used its maritime knowledge and the US harnessed its intellectual capital to rule the world, the early slave traders used the simple compass to wreak havoc on civilization.

The Background

In part 1 of our analysis of this subject matter, “The Ripple Effect of World Economic Interdependency,” (published on May 3, 2010) we used the exact title to pinpoint to what we intended for our readers to see. We pointed out that the interconnectivity and interdependency of the world economies seem to have reached the higher heights when the financial news headlines read, “vision of EU superpower dims (as Greece’s Economic crisis deepens),” “Greek bonds ‘junk’ rating deepens economic crisis,” “stock markets tumble as the Greece economic situation worsens,” “Portugal and Spain may be next…” This is notwithstanding the fact that bigwig media houses such as Washington Post and Reuters have shown headlines like “Greece's economic crisis could signal trouble for its neighbors” and “Greece's economic crisis…,” respectively, earlier in the year.

We further elaborated on the ripple effect of the crisis; from the action of the rating agencies such as Standard & Poor’s which downgraded the Greek bonds to junk as a result, and the subsequent tumbling of global stock market. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, a gauge for quite a number of global investors, on April 27 saw a sharp decline by 128 points or 1.2% to 11079. This trend continued the following day in Asia, Europe, and Africa. We pointed out that this wave was due to the almost instantaneous availability of information, aided by

By Yankuba Mamburay

An eye-catching headline news by IPS News’s Julio Godoy in July of 2009 caught my attention. It says “African Sun May Light Up European Homes”. It is tempting to jump in response with a seemingly more un-ironic question and say, “how about African Sun May Light Up African Homes?” The piece continues to say: “Twenty German companies have drawn up ambitious plans to meet at least 15 percent of the European electricity demand by 2020 from solar thermal power plants installed in the North African Maghreb region.”

By Kawsu Sanyang

Drawing from my readings and researches, coupled with living experiences in both the developing and developed parts of the world, I am of the belief that economic prosperity is often dictated by the forces of the free market and by creating a conducive atmosphere that promotes individual freedom and permits entrepreneurial ingenuity to be at its best that all work hand-in-hand as complements. I am also a proponent of some degree of regulation just enough to layout guidelines for the professional mannered players, deter and weed out swindles and schemes in the likes of William F. Miller, Charles Ponzi, the father of Ponzi scheme, Bernard Madoff and co.

Published Sept. 14/2009

Credited with the Rule of 72

By Yankuba Mamburay

Compound interest is powerful and this short analysis could be one of your financial success tools. Compound interest is something that you must never allow to work against you. The Rule of 72 is something we must all learn and teach our children to understand because it can be a tool that can determine our financial success. This is a tool that can help you make wise decisions to command compound interest and build your financial success.

 By Kawsu Sanyang

Whether you are taxed less, taxed more or fairly taxed, the payment of these dues are not usually our happy moments and most of us wouldn’t volunteer to write a check for Uncle Sam even though he lives on our backs. As vice president Biden put it, taxes are our patriotic responsibilities.

Paying your taxes is a federal mandate and failure to comply tantamount to inviting the imperial IRS on your back and in your space. We have heard and seen ordinary to celebrity citizens who are victims of tax evasion, either rebelling or not paying taxes or just erroneous accounting and the harassment and negative publicity that goes with it. Paying our fair share of taxes is a civic responsibility and default is punishable by law ranging from liens, garnishments to imprisonment.

Published 05/16/2010 - 5:41 a.m. CST

By Yankuba Mamburay

Background
Last week we ran an article we called The Ripple Effect of World Economic Interdependency in which we discussed the effects of the current European crisis, emanating mainly from the four countries dubbed the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain). Throwing in Italy into the equation it is more than just the pigs but it becomes the PIIGS. Barely two days after we discussed the fact that the concept of globalization seemed to have reached its higher heights the stock markets fluctuated in an unprecedented volatile manner. In less than a thirty minute period the Dow plummeted nearly 1000 points, though it regained a good chunk of the losses.

Published 05/03/2010 - 12:11 p.m. CST

By Yankuba Mamburay

The Background
The interconnectivity and interdependency of the world economies seem to have reached the higher heights. This became even more evident to me on April 27, 2010 when the financial news headlines read “vision of EU superpower dims (as Greece’s Economic crisis deepens),” “Greek bonds ‘junk’ rating deepens economic crisis,” “stock markets tumble as the Greece economic situation worsens,” “Portugal and Spain may be next…” This is notwithstanding the fact that bigwig media houses such as Washington Post and Reuters have shown headlines like “Greece's economic crisis could signal trouble for its neighbors” and “Greece's economic crisis…,” respectively, earlier in the year.

Published 04/01/2009 - 10:45 a.m. CST

The G20, the group of the most influencial nations on earth have gathered in London on Wednesday, for a two-day summit to forge a way forward for the world economies. It looks like the world powers are heeding to the urgent warning that was issued by the IMF (International Monetary Fund) just a few weeks ago.

Someone once posed the question to me: “The news is all over about people losing all their moneys; that companies are collapsing and the stock markets keep sinking. If people have so much money and they have not withdrawn it, where does all the money go? In that case someone must be collecting the money somewhere," he said. This is a valid question that most of us silently ask ourselves all the time.