Greed is Limitless, apparently
Dubai was always an obscenity.
With all the oil money in the world available and thrown at it, Dubai was a kind of desert Disneyland, able to construct miles and miles of garish hotels and homes and air-conditioned shopping malls and golf courses and tennis courts.
Federer and Woods and Agassiz and Beckham and anyone else with more cash than they know what to do with rushed in to buy, buy, buy.
Why?
What the hell would you do in Dubai?
Gamble? Drink? Play golf? Screw prostitutes?
O.K. I admit it. I'm a hick. I don't get it because I've never been there.
Of course, I've never wanted to be there. Or Las Vegas. Or many places.
I've been to Whistler half a dozen times and I've always enjoyed myself swimming in the hotel pools and riding my bike and eating good food and playing tennis.
But I can't imagine spending a lot of time there or wanting a house there. Too man made. Too instant community. Too gingerbread.
Anyway...
Dubai.
Now, Dubai has close to $60 Billion in debt and it is threatening to flinch on it payments.
It would be fun to giggle and cheer.
But we cannot because the failure of Dubai and all it excrescent excesses now threatens to bring down the entire world with it.
The Globe's cover story in the business section is appropriately titled:
A world awash in debt
and sub-titled:"The financial crisis provoked a global front to stimulate economies through massive spending. But this was fuelled by a staggering amount of borrowing. Now governments are realizing that a new calamity looms - higher taxes and slashed social programs."
Now, because of the Dubai failure, markets worldwide are shaking.
The Dubai failure is, of course, identical to all of the recent American failures, only more so - greed and greed followed by more greed.
And you thought you could be doing better on your own personal financial management. Ha!
The photo, by the way, is of stupid bored people playing golf at night under the lights in Dubai.
4 comments:
Why do I have a sickening feeling in the pit of my stomach that in some twisted, perverse way, the world's tax payers will end up paying the bills for the Dubai Debacle so that the world's REALLY rich can play until their little hearts are content. It's much the same as why private corporations like GM & Chrysler were bailed out because all the wealthy white collars and shareholders would have had to sell off their country club memberships. Funny thing is nobody asked me if I wanted my hard earned tax money sent to bail out wealthy, yet mismanaged private companies.
The second wave of the collapse of the Capitalistic society is now upon us. Sadly, the free Enterprise autocracies of the world will not admit that it only took 20 years after the fall of Communism, that Capitalism collapsed and was only propped up by printing trillions more dollars and Euros to pay the massive debts.
The third wave of the collapse of Capitalism will be the collapse of world currencies, coming to you real soon.
There will be no fourth wave.
Evil Eye
Dubai is the most overrated place on earth. All style and no substance. Now it has to get bailed out by it's ugly sister, Abu Dhabi. Isn't karma so sweet?
Really hate to say it, but I have to believe that there is some validity to Evil Eye's comment. I think the financial bubble has burst for us worldwide...we are just in suspended animation right before the fall. Maybe we're wrong...Please God, I hope so.
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