That Hideous Strength

Oh Dubai! Yesterday the city state asked for a 6 month waiver on its debt yesterday, rattling world markets, prompting debates about liquidity, regional stability and more. Luckily the US markets were closed yesterday and today is Eid and most of the Muslim world is busy feasting. (Eid Mubarak!)

The infamous emblem of development on super charged hormones is grinding to a pained halt, imagine Dubai on a contracting trajectory, imagine the tallest building in the world empty in the midst of multiple empty others, standing there on a strip of sand dotted with empty fountains and withering palm trees.

At one time Dubai was actively using 80% of the worlds contruction cranes. They are building whole islands for luxury hotels. Concocting land sculptures visible from space. The work force is hauled in from all over, Pakistani and Indian men live in trailer park cities, indentured servants with no comfort and no security. It is as powerful a symbol of globalization gone wrong as Black Friday -- or the trash gyres of the far Pacific. These are the stories history will tell to our children, when we try to explain how truly weird it got!

Is Dubai to big to fail? Will governments bail it out, give it time even as struggling developing nations are forced into terrible binding agreements with the World Bank to avoid defaults? Will Dubai get a pass? Will the market protect the folly of follies?