Saudi billionaire investor reflects on Republican success
A post-US-election look at Saudi billionaire and the largest foreign investor in the US (currently worth $13 billion, $9 billion of that in Citigroup alone) Prince Alwaleed bin Talal in this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):
America's slide into what he calls "irrational pessimism" has cost Kingdom Holdings more than $2 billion this year....The prince's political touch also isn't golden at times. After Sept. 11, the prince cut a check for $10 million for the Twin Towers Fund and issued a statement condemning al Qaeda's "criminal act." But he also urged the U.S. to "re-examine its policies in the Middle East and adopt a more balanced stance toward the Palestinian cause." New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani sent back the check. The prince said he regrets the rumpus but that America must, sooner or later, "wake up" to Palestinian suffering and the resentment this causes across the Arab world.
...He not only watches TV channels, he partly owns many of them, through investments in Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and AOL Time Warner and stakes in various Arabic-language channels. Like many Saudis, he blames much of the post-Sept. 11 rift with Washington on the media. News Corp.'s Fox News, he said, has a habit of being "very nasty." Over the summer he met Mr. Murdoch at the Paris hotel, George V, which the prince also owns. He said he told Mr. Murdoch that he has no problem with Fox having a "strong line" but asked that it "at least give the other side the right to be seen and shown."