The Central Council of Muslims in Germany presented on the BAFIN Islamic Finance conference how mortgages for the Muslim community could look like, how large the market is and challenged the perception that there would be a need to change laws to avoid double real estate transfer tax; it shall rather work tax efficient with proper structuring and without changes. Hence, financial institutions are asked to provide equity and debt based mortgages for the Muslim market.

20091029 BAFIN Islamic Mortgages.pdf

I am a fan of Tim Ferriss' Four Hour Work Week (4HWW), not because I believe that you can achieve four-hours a week work style. I see it more as a book of ideas that can help me move towards minimizing how much work I do and maximizing my efficiency. I also read his blog on occasion for the same reason.

But this video on TED was a big let down. This is by far the worst TED video I have seen and I would love to know how he schmoozed his way on to TED. What is interesting is the most popular tags people used to provide feedback: obnoxious, inspiring, long winded.