I’ve been reading about the financial situation in Dubai lately and it really is the epitome of the housing bubble.  The city has been decimated by the global financial crisis and is having difficulty staying current on its financial obligations.  The more I’ve read it seems that the city is mostly smoke and mirrors anyway.  With the decline in property value, many homeowners have seen their investment’s value decline on a magnitude much greater than in the US (maybe not more than Detroit), and it has put their mortgage payments out of reach.

There are many stories about expats going to jail for failing to repay debts; in Dubai defaulting on a loan is a criminal offense.  The city’s infrastructure is falling apart and unable to meet current demands, which has led to tourist illness from untreated sewage.  The worst thing I read was about enslaved construction workers, when they arrive their passports are taken away, they are forced to live in squalor and are rarely paid.  Its certainly a mess over there, but it really is the business center of the Middle East; and that is an increasingly important region.

I worked in an office with an older guy in the medical supply industry who went to Dubai often and he always told me how everything was fake there and it was eventually going to collapse, I guess he was right.

If you’re interested, read these:

The dark side of Dubai

How Dubai’s burst bubble has left behind the last days of Rome

Tags: Dubai,Finance,UAE
Categories: Travel
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