Dizzy Dollar Dumps the Shekel

Posted on: May 22nd, 2013

The shekel-dollar rate has soared 4 percent in the past two weeks, with the latest jump today (Wednesday) prompted by expectations that the Bank of Israel will lower the interest rate again in June. The rate crossed the level of 3.69 shekels to the dollar on Wednesday after having dropped under 3.55 shekels to the [...]

Natural Gas Magnate Says Gov’t Can Pocket Billions from Exports

Posted on: May 19th, 2013

The government can expect to rake in billions of dollars from natural gas exports in the next 20 years, claimed Yitzchak Tshuva, controlling shareholder of Delek, which is a major partner in the Nobel Energy consortium that has begun pumping gas from its off-shore oil discovery. Opposing views are trying to prohibit exports, arguing that [...]

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More Natural Gas Found

Posted on: May 16th, 2013

Israel has (more) gas. Baruch Hashem. But who should profit?

Plague of Locusts Returns to Israel for Shavuot

Posted on: May 14th, 2013

Fundamentalists were working overtime before Passover to describe how just as in Biblical times, the Jews were spared from the plague. Now the locusts are working overtime, just in time for Shavuot.

Fischer Cuts Interest Rate and Says Bank to Buy 2 Billion Dollars

Posted on: May 13th, 2013

Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer announced on Monday a surprise cut the prime interest rate as part of his battle to fight the appreciation of the shekel and help the economy to keep growing. The financial markets responded with the shekel-dollar rate rising more than 1.5 percent to the level of 3.61 shekels to [...]

Blue and White, All the Waze

Posted on: May 13th, 2013

Waze and Facebook have reached an impasse in their negotiations, but not over whether Facebook will buy Waze for 700 million dollars, or a clean billion, but over Israel, according to the Israeli site Telecom News. Facebook wants to close down Waze’s Raanana office, and transfer some of the developers to the U.S. While the [...]

Facebook Running after Waze to Stare Down Google

Posted on: May 9th, 2013

Waze may be Facebook’s third purchase in Israel, not for the Waze maps but for the traffic it can generate through Facebook, at Google’s expense. But the buyout is far from certain.

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Netanyahu Views Chinese Wall ‘Security Fence’

Posted on: May 9th, 2013

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and his wife Sara visited the Great Wall of China on Thursday, allowing him to make the obvious comparison with Israel’s security fence, dubbed by leftists as the “Apartheid Wall. Unlike the Chinese Great Wall, the “wall” in Israel extends less than 10 percent of the total length of the fortification, [...]

Warren Buffet Buys Out Israeli Firm for $2 Billion

Posted on: May 1st, 2013

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway is paying $2.05 billion for the remaining 20 percent of IMC International Metalworking Co, otherwise known as Isracar, completing the buyout that began with the giant $4 billion purchase of 80 percent of the company in 2006. “We are delighted to acquire the portion of the company that was retained by [...]

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Potash Corp. Gives Up on Bid to Buy Out Israel Chemicals

Posted on: April 25th, 2013

Canadian fertilizer giant Potash Corp. has given up on its $15 billion offer to buy Israel Chemicals following strong opposition in Israel, where fears also were raised that Potash would move some local production to Jordan. Potash, which already has a 14 percent stake in Israeli Chemicals, stated that although it maintains that the proposed [...]

Lapid Clashing Openly with Haredi MKs as Country Cheers

Posted on: April 23rd, 2013

It was that kind of a parliamentary confrontation, stormy, angry, and deliciously witty.

Bill Clinton Tried to Block Israel’s Taxing Newly-Found Gas

Posted on: April 18th, 2013

Bill Clinton’s wealth is more than $55 million. He gets a double dividend as a paid energy lobbyist and being a “friend” of Israel by lobbying against the government’s taxing newly-found gas.

On First Day of Trading, Fairway Shares Up 33%

Posted on: April 17th, 2013

I think this means they're doing fabulously well.

Spiegel Bemoaning ‘Germanophobia’

Posted on: April 14th, 2013

There is no doubt Germanophobia exists, look at Greece, at Italy, even Ireland.

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Fischer Launches New War on Shekel-Dollar Rate

Posted on: April 8th, 2013

Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer launched a new war on the falling shekel-dollar rate Monday and ordered the purchase of $100 million of greenbacks, soon after the rate dropped close to 3.59 shekels to the dollar for the first time in nearly two years. The massive purchase catapulted the rate from the 18-month low [...]

Biannual Budget Cancelled

Posted on: April 7th, 2013

Claiming the 2-year budget concept a failure, the country will revert to the 1 year budget system.

Israel Hits Course to Energy Independence at 4 PM Saturday

Posted on: March 30th, 2013

The use of the gas will commence within 24 hours.

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Israelis May Off PA Debts by Paying More for Electricity

Posted on: March 29th, 2013

The wise men of Chelm have a nifty solution to pay off Palestinian Authority debts for electricity. Use funds collected for the PA or use US aid? Nope. Just make Israelis pay more for electricity.

Turkish Billionaire to Head Israel-PA Business Arbitration Panel

Posted on: March 28th, 2013

A billionaire from Turkey, whose relations with Israel have gone from bad to worse until last week’s attempt by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to end the crisis over the May 2010 flotilla clash, is to serve as the chairman of the new the Jerusalem Arbitration Center (JAC), set up to settle disputes between the Palestinian [...]

New Finance Minister Lapid: Economy in Monstrous Straits

Posted on: March 24th, 2013

Undoubtedly, it would have been easier for the flashy television journalist to strut his right stuff as foreign minister.