Monday, March 8, 2010

Bye Bye Dubai



It is good to be back in the United States! I just spent a month and half in Dubai assisting a friend who owns a construction company. The financial environment in Dubai is horrendous and all those rich Arab tycoons wrapped in traditional headscarves sipping fruit juice cocktails watching Russian models walk along the beach are fleeing the country.

A six-year boom that turned sand dunes into a glittering metropolis, creating the world's tallest building, its biggest shopping mall and, some say, a shrine to unbridled capitalism, is grinding to a halt. The real estate bubble that propelled the frenetic expansion of Dubai on the back of borrowed cash and speculative investment has burst.

Half of all the construction projects, totaling $582 billion have either been put on hold or cancelled, leaving a trail of half-built towers on the outskirts of the city stretching into the desert.

Local banks have stopped lending and the stock market has plunged 70%. Scrape beneath the surface of the fashion parades and VIP parties, and the evidence of economic slowdown are obvious. Luxury hotels are three-quarters empty. Shopkeepers in newly-built malls are reporting a drop in sales.

In Dubai you expect to see a Ferrari parked beside a Rolls-Royce. However now they are both equipped with scruffy For Sale signs taped to the windows.

It is good to be home!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Welcome home to the same thing (just not as glisty): Suburban subdivisions in massive foreclosure, massive debt left by the Bush Administration (which inherited a budget surplus), massive bank bailouts to fat cat.

If you think we're any different, it's just that Dubai has nicer buildings and cars.

Thanks to the GOP's disaster over the preceding 8 years you returned home to a messy diaper left for the Dems to clean up.

MJ said...

Hey idiot, Obama is President, the democrats control the House and the Senate!

Have Democrats ever heard that the buck stops here? Guess not.

Talk about your tired Democrat play book … the Democrat Party, according to Talking Points Memo plans to continue calling Republicans the party of GWB and continue the outdated blame Bush game, “2010 Campaign Preview: Democrats to Say GOP Still Party Of Bush.”

As pointed out by National Review, the blame GWB strategy did not work so well for Democrats Corzine in NJ and Deeds in Virginia. In states carried handily by Obama in 2008, Democrats lost badly by nearly 20 points in VA and in the solid Blue state of New Jersey.

This Blame Bush strategy of liberals and democrats continue to fail as Obama’s policies become increasingly unpopular with Americans. There is a reason why Obama’s and Democrat poll numbers have sunk. One year into the Obama Presidency and it is no longer about GWB. Certainly by 2010 no one wants to hear the blame game.

Is it awonder why there has been such a reversal of fortunes for Republicans since the 2008 elections? Republicans now lead Democrats is the Congressional generic poll 44% to 37%.

No matter how the Democrats want to spin this, the 2010 midterms are going to be a referendum on Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, NOT GEORGE BUSH!

We the People will take care of matters in 2010 and create some real CHANGE the likes that has not been seen in years.

Anonymous said...

Hey Mike.. stop drinking the poisoned Kool Aid and start reading genuine history books and journals.

The patron saint of the GOP - old, "what's my name again" Ronnie- blamed Jimmy Carter for the bad economy and more for the eight years RR was in office. Then Bush 41 continued it.

GWB left this nation on the edge of another depression. His policies and lack of oversight for 8 years was largely to blame for the worldwide financial crisis.

So, yes, it is right to blame GWB and the ten years of GOP control of Congress. This does not mean the Dems are not also to blame, but they did not control the White House and only retook the legislative branch in 2006.

Two unfunded wars, the unfunded prescription drug plan, the $1.5 TRILLION give-away to the rich in the form of tax cuts, and the loss of estate taxes all were because of the Republicans.

Indeed, the buck stops here, but thanks to the GOP, the rich got disgustingly rich and our economy was run like a cheap casino.

It will take decades to undo this mess, and even longer if the GOP manages to take back any branch of government. They disgust me.

Anonymous said...

Mike...you're a retard...and no offense to those with Downs Syndrome!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for providing us with more examples of liberals not taking responsibility for their actions! Democrats want to blame everyone and lead everyone to believe that they have the solutions to all the problems of the world! Jimmy Carter was an abysmal failure and Reagan worked to turn the country around. Obama on the other hand is working to destroy us!

Anonymous said...

"Thanks for providing us with more examples of liberals not taking responsibility for their actions"...

What an idiot you are. First you claim liberals won't take responsibility and then you admit that Reagan and the GOP blamed Jimmy Carter for things but deny that G.W.Bush is to blame for the mess he and the GOP caused.

Wake up. Grow up. And study the facts that clearly show how the GOP destroyed our economy and much more.

It will take years to undo the damage the GOP has caused, but as long as idiots like you exist, we are all doomed.