Saudi Arabia's Kingdom Holding Reports Big Loss

[Joanne98]

DUBAI -- Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, seen just a few months ago as a bastion of Mideast support for banking giant Citigroup Inc., said Tuesday his Saudi Arabian conglomerate, Kingdom Holding Co., lost 29.7 billion Saudi riyals, or about $7.92 billion, in 2008.

The loss -- about half of which Kingdom Holding blamed on impairments to its investment portfolio -- coincided with the release of a survey in Dubai showing business confidence across the oil-rich Persian Gulf plummeted last quarter.

Just a few months ago, the region seemed relatively isolated from fallout from the global financial crisis convulsing much of the rest of the world. But amid tumbling oil prices, economists are revising downward oil-revenue forecasts and economic-growth estimates here.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123246890427498251.html?mod=sphere_ts&mod=sphere_wd

[JDPriestly]

1. Now we know who we have been bailing out and why the use of the

bail-out funds could not be made public. After the gouging gas prices last summer, we bail out their banks. This stinks to high heavens. I wonder whether any of that lost money went to pay off highly placed politicians and others in the Bush administration?

Anybody know a good forensic accountant?

[stillcool]

2. I wonder what percentage of one of these..

global financial institutions is based in the United States. It's hard to figure who's doing who.