I don’t often reread books, especially novels. I figure that you could never get the same page-turning intensity on the second visit, when you know what the plot and denouement are, so it’s best left alone.
However, I recently broke my rule when I got stuck into Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities for the second time in nearly 30 years.
I remembered it as a marvellous novel, an allegory of life (and death) in New York in the 1980s boom years, with heavy overtones of race, social injustice and plain old Wall Street greed as the dark backdrop.
Not much has changed, has it? I think it was the protests in the city over the death of Eric Garner in police custody that made me pick up Bonfire of the Vanities again, and I was glad I did. I’d forgotten most of the nuances, subplots and characters that made it such a work of its time, but are still spot-on today.
Rapacious bond traders who believed they were “masters of the universe”, two-faced officials desperate for votes, self-deluded lawyers working the system for their own aggrandisement, minority politicians taking up any case to ingratiate themselves to “the people”: they were all there then, and by the look of it are still there now.
Scott McCoy, the villain who turns into hero, is such a convincing figure, basically shallow and selfish but therefore well suited to banking. You feel you’ve met the type all around the world, from the canyons of Manhattan to the labyrinths of Dubai’s DIFC.
The Wall Street banker par excellence, who finds himself reduced to the level of ordinary mortals as a result of a bizarre car accident.
Anyway, I bumped into an investment banker friend of mine in the Dome Cafe in DIFC (still my regular haunt, despite the proliferation of rival attractions in the centre) and I told him I was reading the book again.
He’s a westerner who works for an Emirati bank, a good deal younger than me but a good guy who knows the vague but important rules of the source-journalist relationship.
He told me that he read Wolfe’s modern classic when he was a teenager doing A levels in sciences at school in the UK.
“I wanted to be a physicist and make important scientific discoveries, but as soon as I read Bonfire, it changed all that. It was a career in finance, or law, or nothing,” he said.
What got him about the world of finance as portrayed by Wolfe wasn’t the huge bucks on offer (which after 30 years of US inflation seem comparatively small in 2014), nor the power a “master” can wield, but the fact that they all seemed to have such interesting lives in the cockpit of the world in 1987.
“I wanted to be there, New York City, at any price,” he said.
He eventually made it, after much unglamorous labour in accounting, business administration and business law at a red-brick university in the UK. But the crash of 2009 wiped out his firm, and his job. He was part of the generation of bankers who were told to head for Dubai, Mumbai or Shanghai, anywhere but high-cost Manhattan.
“So now I’m in Dubai, and you know, I think it’s almost the way I imagine New York in the ‘80s. Exciting, interesting, fun, all the things I wanted in the first place,” he explains over an iced tea.
Dubai deserves its own version of Bonfire, but who to write it? What an interesting idea …
fkane@thenational.ae
THE SPECS
Engine: 6.75-litre twin-turbocharged V12 petrol engine
Power: 420kW
Torque: 780Nm
Transmission: 8-speed automatic
Price: From Dh1,350,000
On sale: Available for preorder now
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol
Power: 154bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option
Price: From Dh79,600
On sale: Now
Company%20Profile
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COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
What is double taxation?
- Americans living abroad file taxes with the Internal Revenue Service, which can cost hundreds of dollars to complete even though about 60 per cent do not owe taxes, according to the Taxpayer Advocate Service
- Those obligations apply to millions of Americans residing overseas – estimates range from 3.9 million to 5.5 million – including so-called "accidental Americans" who are unaware they hold dual citizenship
- The double taxation policy has been a contentious issue for decades, with many overseas Americans feeling that it punishes them for pursuing opportunities abroad
- Unlike most countries, the US follows a citizenship-based taxation system, meaning that Americans must file taxes annually, even if they do not earn any income in the US.
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre 6-cyl turbo
Power: 374hp at 5,500-6,500rpm
Torque: 500Nm from 1,900-5,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 8.5L/100km
Price: from Dh285,000
On sale: from January 2022
The specs
Engine: Long-range single or dual motor with 200kW or 400kW battery
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Max touring range: 620km / 590km
Price: From Dh250,000 (estimated)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre turbo
Power: 181hp
Torque: 230Nm
Transmission: 6-speed automatic
Starting price: Dh79,000
On sale: Now
How will Gen Alpha invest?
Mark Chahwan, co-founder and chief executive of robo-advisory firm Sarwa, forecasts that Generation Alpha (born between 2010 and 2024) will start investing in their teenage years and therefore benefit from compound interest.
“Technology and education should be the main drivers to make this happen, whether it’s investing in a few clicks or their schools/parents stepping up their personal finance education skills,” he adds.
Mr Chahwan says younger generations have a higher capacity to take on risk, but for some their appetite can be more cautious because they are investing for the first time. “Schools still do not teach personal finance and stock market investing, so a lot of the learning journey can feel daunting and intimidating,” he says.
He advises millennials to not always start with an aggressive portfolio even if they can afford to take risks. “We always advise to work your way up to your risk capacity, that way you experience volatility and get used to it. Given the higher risk capacity for the younger generations, stocks are a favourite,” says Mr Chahwan.
Highlighting the role technology has played in encouraging millennials and Gen Z to invest, he says: “They were often excluded, but with lower account minimums ... a customer with $1,000 [Dh3,672] in their account has their money working for them just as hard as the portfolio of a high get-worth individual.”
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
City's slump
L - Juventus, 2-0
D - C Palace, 2-2
W - N Forest, 3-0
L - Liverpool, 2-0
D - Feyenoord, 3-3
L - Tottenham, 4-0
L - Brighton, 2-1
L - Sporting, 4-1
L - Bournemouth, 2-1
L - Tottenham, 2-1
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The specs: Macan Turbo
Engine: Dual synchronous electric motors
Power: 639hp
Torque: 1,130Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Touring range: 591km
Price: From Dh412,500
On sale: Deliveries start in October
Results
7pm: Wathba Stallions Cup – Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (Dirt) 1,600m; Winner: RB Kings Bay, Abdul Aziz Al Balushi (jockey), Helal Al Alawi (trainer)
7.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: AF Ensito, Fernando Jara, Mohamed Daggash
8pm: Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,400m; Winner: AF Sourouh, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
8.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 1,800m; Winner: Baaher, Fabrice Veron, Eric Lemartinel
9pm: Maiden (PA) Dh70,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: Mootahady, Antonio Fresu, Eric Lemartinel
9.30pm: Handicap (TB) Dh70,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: Dubai Canal, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar
10pm: Al Ain Cup – Prestige (PA) Dh100,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: Harrab, Bernardo Pinheiro, Majed Al Jahouri
Company%20Profile
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RACE CARD
6.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (Dirt) 1,200m
7.05pm: Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (D) 1,900m
7.40pm: Handicap (TB) Dh102,500 (D) 2,000m
8.15pm: Conditions (TB) Dh120,000 (D) 1,600m
8.50pm: Handicap (TB) Dh95,000 (D) 1,600m
9.25pm: Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (D) 1,400m
A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Inside%20Out%202
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