International news on 2 May 2017
A handful of international stories worth your time this morning if you have a moment:
The folks running the Statelet of Qatar are going to be having a Maalox Moment (watch, run time: 0:28) now that France has become the latest country to have opened an investigation into the process that saw Hades awarded the 2022 World Cup.
The Financial Times is (very subtly) warning us that “Hedge funds bolster staff despite performance worries,” which — reading between the lines — augurs poorly for the hedgies. Despite redemptions of USD 110 bn last year, headcount in the industry is up 15% over 2010 levels…
Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs is getting its hands dirty, the Wall Street Journal writes. “The firm has been opening its checkbook … to finance corporate takeovers, lend against mansions and art, and make personal loans for things such as kitchen remodels and fixing broken windshields. It is exploring new credit businesses such as trade finance, equipment leasing and extending credit that consumers use for online purchases, according to people familiar with the discussions. ‘We’re a bank,’ Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein said in a February interview. ‘We should act like one.’” Sounds to us a lot like the playbook just about every Egyptian investment bank is following…