What’s up with Dubai?

What’s up with Dubai? I have been reading a lot about the financial crisis over the last couple of weeks. Surprise: it’s not that interesting or even particularly complicated. But yesterday I heard someone mention that India has been experiencing a relatively small slowdown, on account of not being nearly as leveraged in the banking/speculation domain. If the USA has been living large off irrational exuberance, and Iceland has been living X-Large … well, I couldn’t help but think of Dubai. Wouldn’t their completely absurd growth over the last five years or so be well explained by their XX-Large dose of the medicine of confidence-leveraging. And if that were so, they’d be going into an extra-steep nosedive right about now, right? Yep (via).

4 thoughts on “What’s up with Dubai?

  1. Nobody told the sheiks n their ilk that labor precedes capital. Local royals n every national, drunk on petro-profits, have not worked a day in their lives. There aren’t enough rich people willing to invest in their unsustainable ostentatious oasis mirage. Dubai has been built brick by brick by imported foreigner schmuk workers (one notch above slaves) on temp visas, used, abused n returned to their shanties. Kinda like Sunny Isles to the tenth power.

  2. Dubai announced a $20 Billion bailout to address the problem. I’d provide the link, but I’m such a numbskull I think “via” is Italian for “Go Away,” not a linque.

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