What is the separation between the Saudi government and MbS. Is it essentially the same and is it the case of MbS monetizing Aramco at the expense of the investors?
French pronouns have four possible cases: as the subject, direct object, or indirect object of a verb, or not an argument of a verb at all. The declensions are:
je/me/me/moi
nous (colloquial: “on”)/nous/nous/nous
tu/te/te/toi
vous/vous/vous/vous
il/le/lui/lui
elle/la/lui/elle
ils/les/leur/eux
elles/les/leur/elles
In this example, the pronoun is not the argument of a verb, so the fourth case is used (moi, lui, etc.)
Doesn't the portion of the dividend paid to themselves represent the amount they intend to spend on public services? I'm not sure it's correct to regard it as meaningless.
Sure, they could reduce government spending, or they could reduce the dividend, and reduce spending more, but in any case, the size of the dividend relative to cash flow or profits still says something about sustainability of the present course.
The KSA, after all, can't issue debt in its own currency, can it?
I think the point is simply if the dividend is paid to themselves then short of corruption or mismanagement they can always pump back that money into the company when needed.
Nothing. The KSA is an absolute monarchy. L’etat, c’est il.