in brief: islamic finance. that, anyway, is the medicine that the world islamic economic forum has prescribed. what is islamic finance, and what makes it mor ethan the average bear? in brief, sharia law forbids loaning money at interest. while this sort of stuff might get no more than a chuckle out of us, it is a fact that islamic finance is extremely popular and represents a significant capital pool. hong kong's premier, david tsang, has made it a major policy goal to turn hong kong into a hub of sharia-compliant banking. these islamic banks, forced to avoid usury, have come up with some innovative methods of finance; and while some of these might boil down to loaning at interest, others, such as capital partnerships (in which the bank and the borrower both provide collateral at agreed-upon rates, therefore assuming a certain percentage of ownership), will probably be very attractive globally. given the bruising our financial model has taken, i'd expect not only islamic finance, but other, regional systems, to increase their visibility. the times, my friends, they do not hesitate to go a-changing.
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