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Source: http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2012/0420/1224314968655.html
Banks Fuel "Ramallah Bubble" But Debt Cannot Be Far Behind
(Irish Times) Michael Jansen - The center of Ramallah is thronged with people shopping, strolling and eating pastries under the eyes of the stone lions that grace the traffic circle at Manara Square. Cafes are filled with boys with spiky gelled hair and girls in headscarves and tight jeans smoking water pipes and gossiping. Ramallah is hot, hip and expensive, a boom town administered by the Fatah-dominated Palestinian Authority. Under a system introduced recently in the PA, the percentage of money banks must lend has been raised. "People are financing homes, cars, marriages, computers and education by borrowing," says business consultant Sam Bahour. "Banks get loan guarantees, but individuals get into debt," as they did in Western countries suffering from massive individual and national indebtedness.