Samah El-Shahat

Samah El-Shahat's picture
Samah El-Shahat
Programme Presenter and Resident Economist | United Kingdom
Biography
Samah El-Shahat is a development economist. She is also the channel's Resident Economist, giving in depth analysis about global economics.She also presents, People and Power, and contributes to the channel's economics and business show, Counting the Cost.
 
She is passionate and mad about economics and how power manifests itself in the world. Her most recent work on how firms learn and innovate in Africa was published by the UN in 2007. The only other thing that Samah is even more passionate about, is her chocolate labrador, Lucky.
 
Samah and Lucky will be getting their joint PhD in economics in 2010. He would have gotten his ages ago, if she didn't hold him back so much!

Latest posts by Samah El-Shahat

By Samah El-Shahat in Business on November 9th, 2009
Photo by Getty Images

America is in a depression, and so is the UK.

I hate to say it, but those words spilled from the lips of my lunching companion, the brilliant Stephen Lewis from Monument securities, and frankly I agree. This is what he had to say:

“Depression is a prolonged period of sub-optimal economic activity in which policy measures are ineffective in improving performance on a substantial basis and based on this, then the USA is in depression”

Well in the light of the awful double-digit US unemployment figure that came recently, this idea is not so inconceivable.

So what does this mean for America?

Well it would mean that for the next year or two, it will not feel like much for a recovery but more of a recession.  Moreover, there is no doubting that unemployment still has a long way to go before peaking. I am guessing that it might hit 12%. 

By Samah El-Shahat in Business on October 25th, 2009
Photo by AFP

I am in crisis. My back is out of whack. I have lower back pain that would test the mental and physical endurance of a long distance runner and a nun combined.

My physiotherapist has urged me to "find balance in my life". I need to realign my back, strengthen my “core” muscles, and listen to my body. Finding inner harmony - spiritual, physical and psychological – she says - is the only way of resolving the crisis that is my back.

What I suffer from, in economics speak, is “structural”. It requires change that is deep rooted if I am ever going to realign and rebalance my back to get on with my life. And this got me thinking, about “rebalancing”. It seems to be the “it” word of the post-crisis world.

By Samah El-Shahat in Business on October 14th, 2009

It is rumoured that Goldman Sachs, the bank that wasn't just bailed out once, but twice by the American taxpayer, is looking for a charity to give $1 billion to as an attempt to kill off the escalating furore over the record size of the expected bonus payout that it will be giving its staff at the end of the year.

I would like to make a suggestion to which charity the money should go to. It should go to "Gamblers Anonymous". No prizes for guessing why, but let me give you a quick hint: Bankers on the whole need immediate therapy so they don't gamble with our futures again, or with our money.

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By Samah El-Shahat in Business on October 12th, 2009
Photo by AFP

My Labrador, Lucky, is unhappy! He keeps giving me funny looks. No, I am not going crazy, but I know him. This morning when we went out for our walk, for the first time in 6 years ( he is 6 years old), he didn’t pull at the lead, or take me for the walk, but instead, walked perfectly at my side. He didn’t even jump at the newspaper man, Jack,  as he usually does to get his daily biscuit from him.

Usually Lucky would run like a maniac towards Jack, leaping manically at him, usually taking him down, licking him profusely, tail wagging, until Jack gives him a biscuit. Releasing Jack from under my 35-kilo dog takes tact and a miracle, but it happens every day! No wonder he's known as “loony Lucky” in the neighbourhood.

By Samah El-Shahat in Business on October 12th, 2009
Photo by Indiana University via Getty Images

Hurrah! The Nobel prize for economics has just been awarded to a woman for the first time in its history. Elinor Ostrom won the award with fellow Oliver Williamson for their separate work in economic governance. The pair will share $1.44 million. Not bad for a lifetime’s work.

Why was this win important? Well, because the Nobel committee steered clear of other candidates whose work in any way was involved with the financial crisis. There had been a growing trend over the last few years to giving it to economists who had worked on finance. And even this year, the bookies' favourite was Eugene Fama, the economist who worked on something called , “efficient market hypothesis”.

By Samah El-Shahat in Business on October 10th, 2009
Photo by Stephen Jaffe/IMF via Getty Images

I own up! I have been hitting the patisserie next to our offices in London with relentless eagerness this past week. From cream éclairs to chocolate mousse, I have done it all! My thighs and waistline will look richer for it, but overall, I will feel poorer!

So what’s eating me? The International Monetary Fund, the IMF is. Well, not literally, but you get my gist.

It had its yearly meeting in Istanbul, and rich countries have agreed to shift 5% of their votes to emerging economies such as China and Brazil. Most people seem to be celebrating this shift in power towards developing countries - whether it be at the IMF or the fact that the G8 is now officially replaced by the G20. We feel that the global system has reformed itself, and learned from the financial crisis - that they way the world does business cannot be left in the exclusive hands of the rich boys and girls from the G8.

Al Jazeera Live

Biography

Samah El-Shahat's picture
Samah El-Shahat
Programme Presenter and Resident Economist
Samah El-Shahat is Al Jazeera's resident development economist and presenter of the in-depth news programme People & Power.

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