Word: merchant
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Mandigo says there are merchant bankers, insurance companies and pension funds looking for places to park their cash that might view Hyatt as a smart investment. "This is something that's fresh, has a strong name behind it, and a good reputation in the industry," he says. "It's kind of like an oasis in the desert in terms of investment opportunity...
...family could agree on a ransom. Now he and his brother, who survived the communists, a brutal civil war and the Taliban, are thinking about quitting the business and leaving Afghanistan. "It doesn't look good," he told me, and over the years I've come to trust his merchant's instincts above all the embassy pundits put together. He was worried by reports that President Karzai's supporters committed widescale fraud in the Aug. 20 elections, and this, the shop-keeper says, could re-open ancient ethnic grudges between the Pashtuns, most of whom back Karzai...
...many devotees, khat is a social lubricant on a par with coffee or alcohol in the West. Indeed, because chewing the leaf isn't forbidden by Islam, "khat is alcohol for Muslims," says Yahya Amma, the head merchant at the Agriculture Suq, one of the largest khat markets in the city. "You can chew it and still go to prayers." The leaf's energy-boosting and hunger-numbing properties help university students focus on their homework, allows underpaid laborers to work without meals and, according to local lore, offers the same help to impotent men that Westerners seek in Viagra...
...shipping industry, like so many others, has been battered by the global recession. According to Lloyd's Marine Intelligence Unit, nearly 10% of the world's merchant ships are stuck at harbor because of a collapse in global trade. Burnett notes that there has been an increase in insurance fraud as a result of financial pressures. "We have had cases in the past where ships have been intentionally scuttled as part of a fraudulent insurance scheme," he says. "The law says that when a ship doesn't arrive in port, it's assumed to be from a peril...
...advantage of being in Amritsar is that almost everyone in the business-oriented town is a merchant. Furthermore, the cash-and-carry format allows Bharti and Walmart to co-opt a part of the competition - the mom-and-pop, or kiryana, stores - by turning them into customers. In fact, there's a section within the Best Price store called a "model store," where kiryana shop owners are taught how to arrange goods in their store and optimize inventories to maximize profits...