Bernard Madoff Says Banks Knew of Ponzi Scheme

Convicted fraudster Bernard Madoff has blamed others for being "complicit" in his scheme, which fleeced investors of billions of dollars. Madoff is serving 150 years in jail in the US for a $65bn (£40bn) fraud which deprived thousands of investors of their savings. Now he has told the New York Times a variety of banks and hedge funds "had to know" about his Ponzi scheme. Such schemes pay out using new investor money rather than from any profits.

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Gulf Shares Gain as Egypt Government Meets With Opposition; Emaar Advances

Persian Gulf shares gained, sending Dubai’s index to a week high, as Egypt’s government met with opposition leaders to quell protests, stoking speculation the turmoil in the country may ease. Qatar’s stocks advanced. Emaar Properties PJSC, the United Arab Emirates’ developer with investments in Egypt’s real-estate industry, advanced 1.5 percent. Air Arabia PJSC rose for the third time in four days. The DFM General Index rallied 1.6 percent to 1,605.89, the highest since Jan. 27, at the 2 p.m. close in Dubai. Qatar’s QE Index gained 1.5 percent, led by banks, after the central bank ordered conventional lenders to stop offering Islamic banking services.

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Obama Goal to Trim Jobless Rate Is Endangered by State, Local Budget Cuts

President Barack Obama’s goal of driving the unemployment rate below 9 percent this year is threatened by state and local budget cuts that are likely to intensify as Federal stimulus money runs out.  Austerity measures may add as much as 0.25 percentage point to the unemployment rate this year, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist of Moody’s Analytics Inc.

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Oil And Other Markets Get Increasingly Nervous Over Egyptian Crisis

Anyone watching oil prices this week could be forgiven if they thought Egypt is a major oil producer. As the crowds of protesters in Cairo grew from thousands, to tens of thousands, to hundreds of thousands, the price of oil shot upward. The price of benchmark Brent crude oil this week surged to $100, up 5 percent since the beginning of last week, when violence spread from Tunisia to Egypt. It's the first time oil has gone that high in two years.

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