February Third Week Roundup of International and GCC Finance News
Morgan Stanley May Bet on Bitcoin in $150 Billion Investment Arm, Swiss Wealth Tax Rakes in Cash as Covid Stokes Global Debate, Value of real estate transactions in Abu Dhabi totalled Dhs 74bn in 2020
Personal Finance: Do I Need a Prenup? Advice for Millennials Getting Married - Bloomberg
"I love the concept of prenups. I’d go so far as to call them romantic. What shows more intimacy than laying bare all your financial details? What is more loving than creating a plan for divvying up assets in a fair and equitable way?"
"Maybe a better term is marriage insurance. Just as auto insurance covers you in the event of a car accident, and homeowners’ insurance helps if a tree falls on your roof, a prenup is an insurance policy that can protect you during the fallout of a divorce."
"In its simplest form, a prenup outlines the property and assets of each party and specifies who will have rights to those assets and property after a marriage ends."
"A prenuptial agreement should be a discussion about what feels like a fair division of assets within the ecosystem of your relationship."
Swiss Wealth Tax Rakes in Cash as Covid Stokes Global Debate - Bloomberg
"With the Covid-19 fallout causing government debt to swell, and hurting poorer people most, wealth taxes are being debated from California to the U.K. as a tool both to pay down debt and address inequality."
"Criticisms range from the view that it’s wrong to target assets accumulated through income that is already taxed."
"Switzerland is among very few countries left with a recurring annual wealth tax. The number of OECD countries imposing it dropped to four in 2017 from 12 in 1990."
"Argentina implemented a one-time wealth tax in December."
Dubai developers suffer but Abu Dhabi sustains Aldar
"In Abu Dhabi, Aldar outperformed Emaar and DAMAC, sustaining the same profits as last year and benefiting from government contracts."
"Last year, the government launched a committee to manage supply and demand, while developers temporarily halted new projects, says Asharq."
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Value of real estate transactions in Abu Dhabi totalled Dhs 74bn in 2020, up 28% y-on-y
"The department exempted individual investors and companies from 34 of real estate registration fees until the end of 2020 including 2 per cent sale and purchase fees, 2 per cent off plan sale fee and land exchange fees, mortgage registration, mortgage transfers, mortgage amendments and mortgage redemption."
Morgan Stanley May Bet on Bitcoin in $150 Billion Investment Arm - Bloomberg
"Four-fold jump in four months has stoked customers interest, making the digital asset even harder to ignore."
"Billions of dollars have been pouring into the cryptocurrency through vehicles including the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust"
"Even institutional investors, barred by the rules of their funds from holding Bitcoin directly, have turned to such trusts."
How Mars became the prize for the new space race – and why China is hellbent on winning it | Space
"China is not the only country at Mars. On February 9, a UAE probe, Hope, achieved the same insertion maneuver. It is not a direct competitor to the Chinese mission (the probe will just orbit the planet to study the Martian weather), but (NASA's Perseverance rover), set to arrive on Feb. 18, definitively is."
"The Indian Mars Orbiter Mission (MOM), aka Mangalyaan, reached Mars in 2014 – the first to make it at its maiden mission. This is one reason why a successful outcome of Tianwen-1 is so important for China’s status as the new space power"
"It is clear that, together with cyberspace, the cosmos has become a fundamental new war-fighting domain, where the US are the main — but not the only — adversary."
The World Is Short of Computer Chips. Here’s Why: QuickTake - Bloomberg
"Some businesses are getting whacked. Chip shortages are expected to wipe out $61 billion of sales for automakers alone and delay the production of a million vehicles in the March quarter, but the fallout now threatens to hit the much larger electronics industry."
"When you hear about Apple or Qualcomm or Nvidia chips, those companies are actually just the designers of the semiconductors, which are made in factories called foundries."
"Today most companies focus on design. With only three companies -- TSMC, Samsung and Intel -- still making advanced logic chips, and the American company struggling to keep up, a crucial skillset has become concentrated in the hands of just a few."