Nature’s money that can save our civilisation
THE COVID-19 pandemic that blazed across 2020 has thrown the world into disarray. Economic damage that has triggered the breakdown of the system signals a dire need for change. As the old system is getting dismantled and global leaders jump in to fix the problems, Bitcoin is now gaining traction, increasing in price and welcoming new users every day.
Bitcoin, invented during the financial crisis in 2008, is free from the central authority of governments and banks. In its 12 years of existence, the technology, with its unique feature of censorship resistance and permissionless use, has allowed people to store value securely and transact with one another freely in a way that is unprecedented in human history.
Eve Ottenberg | Published: 00:00, Mar 15,2021
Counter Punch/Captain Brian Harris
WILL the US. military ever leave Afghanistan? The answer appears to be no. When the US military comes it stays. It’s been in Germany since the 1940s, and now has expanded, with its attack dog, NATO, from there throughout Eastern Europe to menace Russia. The Afghan adventure has so far lasted 20 years and cost two trillion dollars. Afghanistan provides a convenient, imperial base from which to threaten China. The US military, realistically, will never want to give that up.
Trump left office with plans in place for the remaining 2500 US troops to depart Afghanistan by May 1. Not a word about the 18,000 contractors, aka mercenaries, who have long outnumbered US soldiers in Afghanistan. Like those soldiers, these mercenaries’ lives are at risk. They are also a geopolitical liability. If one gets killed, as happened not too long ago in Iraq, the US retaliates. That co
Norway investment on Bangladesh’s capital market hits record high
Mostafizur Rahman | Published: 22:23, Mar 02,2021 | Updated: 21:02, Mar 04,2021
Investment of Norway’s sovereign wealth fund (SWF), the world’s biggest fund, in Bangladesh’s capital market hit a record high in 2020 despite the coronaviruscentric sluggishness on the market.
The SWF has been increasing its stake on Bangladesh’s stock market every year since investing around $19 million in the country in 2015 amid expectations of better returns from the market.
In 2020, the fund’s investment value on Bangladesh’s capital market reached $248.35 million, which was $188.12 million in 2019.
The Norwegian government pension fund had footprints in 20 companies in 2020 against 22 companies in the previous year.
M Moneruzzaman | Published: 23:41, Feb 23,2021
The High Court on Tuesday observed that officers of Bangladesh Bank, who were responsible for overseeing the activities of non-banking financial institutions, were beneficiaries of financial scams carried by scammers at different non-banking financial institutions by illegally facilitating the top brass of the companies.
The company bench of Justice Muhammad Khurshid Alam Sarkar also called Bangladesh Bank’s executive director Shah Alam a ‘thief and a robber’.
Shah Alam was recently discharged of his duties at the central bank’s Department of Financial Institutions and Markets and the Department of Banking Inspection-2 for his alleged connection with fugitive Prashanta Kumar Halder, former director of International Leasing and Financial Services.