The lessons of Jammaz Al-Suhaimi’s demise

There’s plenty of simmering outrage in Riyadh financial circles over the dismissal of Capital Markets Authority chief Jammaz Al-Suhaimi, the highly regarded regulator who has striven to clean up the Saudi stock market. But the decision of the authorities to sacrifice him is hardly a surprise.

In emerging countries like Saudi Arabia, a battle always rages, sometimes unseen, between four forces seeking to control the markets: the public chasing easy money; the government pursuing complex goals, here including wealth distribution; the regulator trying to impose order; and the manipulators, the wealthy and politically well connected who treat the country and its markets as their own.