Saudi king in post-coronation giveaway

Riyadh

EUROPEAN leaders are still battling over austerity. The US Congress is gearing up for another fight over the budget. But in Saudi Arabia, there are no such troubles when you are the king - and you just dole out billions and billions of dollars to ordinary Saudis by royal decree.

Not surprisingly, Saudis are very happy with their new monarch, King Salman.

"It is party time for Saudi Arabia right now," said John Sfakianakis, the Riyadh-based Middle East director of the Ashmore Group, an investment company, who estimates that the king's post-coronation giveaway will ultimately cost more than US$32 billion.

That is a lot of cash - more, for e…