Survey shows women should control purse strings

A good strategy may be to assign a “chief financial officer” of the house, someone who will stay on top of money-related issues, from setting the household budget, balancing the cheque books to investing the family’s nest egg…article

No date has been set for Carroll’s departure, which will leave just two women running the biggest UK-listed companies. Article

Leena Al Olaimy, Mid East entrepreneur

3BL Associates is Bahrain’s first social impact consultancy and think-do-tank, which is dedicated to working with progressive and innovative organizations that are committed to Triple Bottom Line (3BL)
performance of Social Equity, Environmental Sustainability, and Economic Growth—also known as the 3 P’s: People, Planet, Profit. Founded in 2010, 3BL Associates also aims to contribute to Bahrain’s socio-economic development through multi-sector partnerships. Article

Huang has trouble understanding why his latest project is so controversial. “I’m hurt by the mistrust with which I and the entire Chinese nation were met.” He is talking about Iceland and, more specifically, about an almost virgin piece of land in the northeastern part of the island, complete with waterfalls and snow-covered peaks, called Grimsstadir a Fjöllum. Huang fell in love with this wildly romantic stretch of wilderness during a visit to Iceland. He wanted to acquire 30,639 hectares (about 120 square miles) of land and invest about $200 million in the property. The plans included a 120-room hotel, a golf course and a riding facility, which could all be reached via a new airport built specifically for the site.  Article

GOLF ANYONE?

Almost three quarters of women in the UK (74%) worry about their financial future, according to a newly published report…article

Thirty percent of South African women are willing to spend more than six months’ salary on their wedding, and 10 percent of women have a secret bank account their partner is unaware of. This was revealed in the first annual Women’s Money Matters Survey 2012, conducted by Visa, in which 2 000 women from all income groups participated…article

BEIJING – Authorities have investigated more than 15,000 civil servants involved in 13,000 cases of commercial bribery over the last five years, according to an official statement issued on Wednesday.  Government officials have faced extra scrutiny in a national crackdown on commercial bribery, according to a statement on the website of the Ministry of Supervision.  From November 2007 to June 2012, judicial and law enforcement authorities probed more than 81,000 commercial bribery cases involving a total of 22.2 billion yuan (about $3.6 billion), the statement said.  The crackdown has helped rebuild market credit and correct the practice of building businesses through gift-giving, the statement said. Report from China Daily. Bo Xilai expelled from Communist Party.   Article

Ready to leap into action?

Africa is on a tear. “It is the only region in the world where growth is accelerating.  If you strip out South Africa, the rest of the region is actually growing very, very quickly,” says an investment banker from Moscow.  Article

In his opening statement to MPs in the Bundestag, which was released by the ECB, Mr Draghi again outlined the rationale for the outright monetary transactions scheme or OMT.

As President of the European Central Bank (ECB), it is a privilege for me to come to the heart of German democracy to present our policy responses to the challenges facing the euro area economy…Speech