The recession is hitting Dubai!  I thought Dubai was going to be the New Jerusalem for those escaping the economic apocalypse.  Now thousands upon thousands of debt-laden foreign workers are getting their pink slips and catching the next flight to splitsville! 

Don't let the authorities nab you here, Jack, they've got debtor's prison!

As their own real estate bubble collapses and the lay-offs keep on coming, late model luxury cars sit abandoned at the airport with their owners back in Paris, London, New York or wherever, with their tails between their legs!

As the NYT article points out, unlike Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Dubai doesn't have its own oil, just investments in oil. 

What have they got?  A reputation for plush tourist junkets, freewheeling capitalism, high finance, and, you know, the good life.  But, to paraphrase Gertrude Stein, there was no there there!  So...on the eve of the Second Great Depression, the mirage is fading away to reveal just another wretched Middle Eastern city of burning sands, cockroaches, and draconian laws!

Call it ironic.  Call it the canary in the coalmine.  Call it what you will.  There it is.
http://www.inthe00s.com/smile/13/icon_farao.gif

If I didn't know any better, I'd think you're enjoying this.

Nevertheless, Dubai is an extreme example of where tons of foreign investment without producing much yourself leaves you extremely vulnerable to market conditions.

Sadly, America is somewhat this way as well with our extreme trade deficit.

Another good example of a casualty of this recession is Iceland.  They currently sit at the top of the HDI, but I have a feeling when the next one comes out, they'll be much lower on the list.

Norway looks like it will reclaim its crown as the best country to live in.  They're also one of the few countries with a big enough budget surplus to handle bailouts without harming their currency.

It ain't enjoyment so much as just resignation. 

Whether it's happening to to other people or it's happening to you, sometimes you just gotta say, "Gawdam! We're SOL!"

You know what the give down at the Career Center (the shinola name for the unemployment office)? Among all the pamphlets and funny charts and graphs they give you to keep you busy is a sheet called "From Crisis to Opportunity."  It'a a line graph plotted by a dude named "Robert B. Garber" demonstrating "Emotional Responses to Stages of Unemployment.  On one end is "Crisis: Termination" on the other is "Opportunity: Growth and New Direction."

Now, lemme tell you where this asshole Garber copied it from, plain as the nose on your face: The Elizabeth Kubler-Ross model of the stages of death and dying, known as "The Five Stages of Grief." 

Am I the one who's cynical for noticing it, or are they the ones who are cynical for passing around the Kubler-Ross stages 'coz you got laid off during the depression!
:D

Anyway, back to Dubai...

Norway looks like it will reclaim its crown as the best country to live in.  They're also one of the few countries with a big enough budget surplus to handle bailouts without harming their currency.

Yeah - a country where they have oil reserves that they're treating as a valuable resource to improve the quality of life for all long-term rather than something to be squandered as fast as possible, making a small number of people very rich.

Norway - come 2030, the next target for US invasion?

Yeah - a country where they have oil reserves that they're treating as a valuable resource to improve the quality of life for all long-term rather than something to be squandered as fast as possible, making a small number of people very rich.

Norway - come 2030, the next target for US invasion?


Norway?  All they got is ice and socialists.  Might as well just invade Vermont and save the shipping costs!
:D

Norway?  All they got is ice and socialists
:D

You mean,,, ice, socialsists and oil

Now, lemme tell you where this asshole Garber copied it from, plain as the nose on your face: The Elizabeth Kubler-Ross model of the stages of death and dying, known as "The Five Stages of Grief." 

Am I the one who's cynical for noticing it, or are they the ones who are cynical for passing around the Kubler-Ross stages 'coz you got laid off during the depression!
:D


LOL...  +1 for that