This little novice went to market...in Baghdad (24-year old makes bourse)

[Barrett808]

This little novice went to market . . . in Baghdad
Jan 31
Yochi J. Dreazen | Wall St Journal | Baghdad

At Yale University, Jay Hallen majored in political science, rarely watched financial news channels and didn't follow the stockmarket.

All of which made the 24-year-old an unlikely pick for the difficult task of rebuilding Iraq's shattered stock exchange. But Hallen, a private-sector development officer for the United States-led Coalition Provisional Authority, was given the job immediately after arriving in Baghdad last September.

...

In early November, he travelled to Baghdad's Hamra Hotel for a lunch meeting with Luay Nafa Elias, who runs an investment company. Elias says he was expecting to meet a middle-aged man and was astonished to see the baby-faced Hallen sit down at the table and order a plate of kebabs.

"I had thought the Americans would send someone who was at least 50 years old, someone with grey hair," Elias says.

As the lunch continued, Elias found himself impressed by Hallen's confident tone and his repeated promises to quickly open a stockmarket that would be the envy of the Arab world.

Elias's faith in Hallen, however, began to evaporate when the market's opening was delayed without explanation, first to the middle of this month and then into February. "Maybe someone older and more experienced could have got this done on time," Elias says.

(more)

http://afr.com/articles/2004/01/30/1075340835882.html

[thebigidea]

1. that's nothing, you should see they toddler they got fixin power plants!

[Skidmore]

2. I'm sure he's one of the carefully schooled minions

of the fine MBA programs that corporate America spawned and a worthy young conservative willing to do and not think. The delay in setting up the stock exchange also probably was upon instructions of his superiors. Chaos assures that change will not occur.

If the situation were not a matter of life and death, this would be hilarious.