There's no such thing as a free lunch...Or is there?

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It's official. The next president of Indonesia is former army general Prabowo Subianto. Quite how the next five years will pan out is anyone's guess but hopefully the foreign pundits who always bring up his dodgy human rights record will be proven wrong. Nonetheless, on policy making, Prabowo's popularist move to literally offer the poor 'a free lunch' every day of the week does not augur well for the future. Such a policy - if it ever came to fruition - would cost a phenomenal amount of money and likely lead to huge inefficiencies (food waste) and poor incentives (make people lazy). Another concern is Prabowo's strong nationalist bent. Thus, in the possible event that he finds himself with his back against the proverbial wall in the face of stern economic challenges, there is a big chance that he will simply scapegoat foreigners. But he will have to be careful. Construction of the new capital city, Nusantara, for example, is highly dependent on foreign in
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Doing deals with the Bin Ladens

Amazing little story this.

First off we have a report that “state construction company PT Pembangunan Perumahan (PP) has secured Rp 16.2 trillion ($1.8 billion) worth of contracts this year, including two with the Binladen Group construction conglomerate and holding company in the Middle East”.

Source: Jakarta Post

Bin Laden? You mean that Bin Laden?

Yep sort of. Well not him specifically but rather his huge family (Osama’s father Sheikh Mohammed bin Laden didn’t waste any time and fathered 53 children with his 22 wives).

Unsurprisingly, the Binladen Group have always gone to great lengths to distance themselves from the rather unsavory exploits of its most famous family member.

And if you check out Binladen Group’s current website all seems to be in order.

But if I were also to tell you that the Group’s previous website had been purchased with a pre-set expiration date of Sept. 11, 2001, you’d probably think I was talking a lot of nonsense.

Or maybe not.

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