The Middle East’s Great Gatsby

Arms dealing may be morally dubious, but it can also be incredibly lucrative, and no one demonstrated this more than Adnan Khashoggi. The arms dealer, who died earlier this month, was "the Great Gatsby of the Middle East", says Jonathan Aitken in the Daily Mail. Indeed, when Aitken, then an investment banker, first met Khashoggi in the 1970s, to discuss a business deal, the refreshments consisted of "Beluga caviar piled high on golden dishes, carried to our plates by exquisitely pretty girls in micro-skirts". Aitken's colleagues were then flown to Nice "in Khashoggi's sumptuous private jet, and embarked for dinner on his battleship-sized private yacht".

This was just the tip of Khashoggi's extravagance. Another yacht he had built, and named after his daughter Nabila, featured in the James Bond movie Never Say Never Again hence the appearance of the words "Thanks A.K." in the film's end credits. He was also "a lavish host, a party-giver on a gargantuan scale, and a supreme hedonist" who "drank deeply from the well of media juice" and built a "colourful network of grateful guests, beautiful people and movie stars".

Khashoggi was unapologetic about his practice of taking large payments from both the Saudi government and the companies that supplied them, stating that "if you offer money to a government to influence it, that is corruption. But if someone receives money for services rendered afterwards, that is a commission." Such business practices raked him in enough money to support a reported $250,000 a day on maintaining his lifestyle, which at his peak included 12 homes and 1,000 suits. He also blew $70m on his third yacht and $40m "on a customised Douglas DC-8 described as a flying Las Vegas discotheque", says Michael Gillard in The Guardian.

Subscribe to MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Sign up

However, when it came to more acceptable business ventures Khashoggi was a disaster. "Ill-judged projects such as a $500m glass pyramid hotel scheme at Giza, a $1bn property play in Salt Lake City and a bid to grab a share of Sudan's oil worsened his cash crisis." Meanwhile, "his high profile and profligacy became an embarrassment" to his patrons in Riyadh.

As a result, "the planes, like the yachts and homes, soon went to pay creditors", while his involvement in various alleged crimes meant that Khashoggi would spend "the rest of his life pursued by creditors, regulators and prosecutors" (although he was never convicted of any wrongdoing). By 1990 his net worth had shrunk to $8m, with one bank account containing "just 47 cents".

Still, any decline in wealth was relative. Even when he was briefly jailed by Swiss authorities, on charges of helping Imelda Marcos launder stolen cash (he would ultimately be acquitted), "someone ensured the arms dealer had gourmet food from the Schweizerhof brought to his cell". It's important to remember that "the weapons he helped sell perfected the art of blowing people apart", says Adam Lusher in The Independent. Khashoggi's life of "palaces, luxury properties and a superyacht" make a grotesque contrast with "the zones of war" that were "the ultimate destination for some of the weapons being sold".

Tabloid money a lifelong quest for the perfect handbag

"I like a handbag as much as the next woman and in many ways life is an endless but ultimately fruitless quest for the perfect one," says Jennifer Selway in the Daily Express. Now it seems handbags are investments too. Last week, a Herms Birkin bag fetched £125,000 at a Christie's auction, making it the most expensive bag in Europe. Yet former "bag queen" Victoria Beckham (pictured) is now often seen handbag-less. "Is it a sign?" asks Selway. "Will the bottom drop out of the handbag market? Have we reached peak tote?"

"I met a financial planner this week because I thought it was about time I started putting some money away for my pension," says Saira Khan in the Sunday Mirror. "Ever since we had kids, our money comes in and then goes straight back out again." There is very little to save at the end of each month. But our adviser's top tip was to save and then spend, rather than spend and then save. "I know that sounds like common sense, but apparently many of us are doing the latter." We'd all do a lot better if we changed our mindset and learned to put some of our earnings aside. It doesn't have to be much, says Khan. If you put £50 away every month for the next 20 years at an interest rate of 2%, you'd end up with a lump some of £14,000. "Wouldn't that come in handy?"

Alexandra Shulman, the former editor of British Vogue, said recently that women "can't have it all". But why has nobody ever asked that question of men? asks Karren Brady in The Sun on Sunday. It's a given that men can have "a fantastic go-getting career, a beautiful wife and family and a lovely home without criticism or compromise". But that's because there is "someone keeping the home fires burning". The whole concept of "having it all" is flawed as far as women are concerned, says Brady. "Because having it all, in real life, actually means doing it all."