DuBye, UAE

[JayB]

"Driven down by debt, Dubai expats give new meaning to long-stay car park

 

For many expatriate workers in Dubai it was the ultimate symbol of their tax-free wealth: a luxurious car that few could have afforded on the money they earned at home.

 

Now, faced with crippling debts as a result of their high living and Dubai’s fading fortunes, many expatriates are abandoning their cars at the airport and fleeing home rather than risk jail for defaulting on loans.

 

Police have found more than 3,000 cars outside Dubai’s international airport in recent months. Most of the cars – four-wheel drives, saloons and “a few” Mercedes – had keys left in the ignition.

 

Some had used-to-the-limit credit cards in the glove box. Others had notes of apology attached to the windscreen.

 

“Every day we find more and more cars,” said one senior airport security official, who did not want to be named. “Christmas was the worst – we found more than two dozen on a single day.”

 

When the market collapsed and the emirate’s once-booming economy started to slow down, many expatriates were left owning several homes and unable to pay the mortgages without credit.

 

“There were a lot of people living the high life, investing in real estate and a lifestyle they couldn’t afford,” one senior banker said.

 

Under Sharia, which prevails in Dubai, the punishment for defaulting on a debt is severe. Bouncing a check, for example, is punishable with jail. Those who flee the emirate are known as skips.

 

The abandoned cars underscore a worrying trend. Five years ago the Emir, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, embarked on an ambitious plan to transform Dubai into a hub for business and tourism. A building boom fuelled double-digit growth, with thousands of Westerners arriving every day, eager to cash in on the emirate’s promise of easy living and wealth.

 

Many Westerners invested in Dubai’s skyrocketing real estate market, buying and reselling homes before building was even complete. But, as the recession took effect, property and financial companies made thousands of workers redundant and banks tightened lending. Construction companies have delayed or cancelled projects and tourism is slowing.

 

There are increasing signs that the foreigners who once flocked to Dubai are leaving. “There is no way of tracking actual numbers, but the anecdotal evidence is overwhelming. Dubai is emptying out,” said a Western diplomat.

 

International schools are having to be flexible on fees as expatriate parents run out of cash. Louise, a single mother from Britain, said that her son’s school had allowed her to pay a partial fee until she found a new job after her redundancy in December. “According to the headmaster, a lot of people had come into the school saying they had lost their jobs so the school was trying to be a bit more flexible,” she said.

 

Most of the emirate’s banks are not affiliated with British financial institutions, so those who flee do not have to worry about creditors. Their abandoned cars are eventually sold off by the banks at weekly auctions. Those recently advertised include BMWs, Porsches and Mercedes.

 

Simon Goldsmith, a spokesman for the British Embassy in Dubai, said that that there were approximately 100,000 Britons living in Dubai last year. However, the embassy has no way of tracking how many have fled back to the UK. “We’ve heard stories, but when somebody makes that kind of decision, they generally keep it to themselves,” he said.

 

Police have issued warrants against owners of the deserted cars. Those who return risk arrest at the airport."

 

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/markets/the_gulf/article5663618.ece

[Off_White]

Don't you mean DuByeBye? Hope that headquarters relocation works out for Halliburton and Dick Cheney enjoys his new residence.

[billcoe]

That's too bad. Dubai has been a normal country and friend of the US in a region full of questionable countries. I'd seen the stories where they'd had to curtail their ambitious building plans as oil prices have dropped, looks like a big double whammy due to the credit markets as well.

 

Real estate story: Link

 

Jayb: as you were the only one around here who consistently put your money where your mouth was on overvalued real estate prices due for a downturn, I'd be greatly interested in what you see in your crystal ball going forward based on current news (stimulus package, fed interest rates near 0, etc etc) Plus, what do you think of storing some money in a foreign currency to offset a potential dollar drop?

[Hugh Conway]

On a related note Emirates airlines has stopped hiring flight crew.

 

They've a backlog of 200+ widebody aircraft from Boeing and Airbus

[billcoe]

Jayb, you there? Hello? Bueller.....B..U..L..L..E..RRRRR?

 

Todays news:

 

" Hillary Clinton has kept a low profile since taking over the State Department, but she spoke today at the Asia Society in New York on the eve of her first trip to Japan, Indonesia, South Korea, and China. Her speech included some tough words for North Korea, saying it "was incumbent on North Korea to avoid any provocative action and unhelpful rhetoric towards South Korea.” Clinton stops first in Japan, but she’ll be busiest in China. According to the Associated Press, “The United States would like China to do more to support internal consumer demand and reduce its reliance on exports to generate its growth. It would also like to see the Chinese currency appreciate, making U.S. exports more competitive and helping to narrow the vast U.S. trade deficit with China.”"

[Hugh Conway]

He's mourning the loss of his Free market paradise in Dubai

[tvashtarkatena]

Past due buy.

[Hugh Conway]

Past due buy.

 

almost no taxation, rule of law, it follows from Milton Friedman that this would be a socially liberal paradise right?

 

Oh, wait, it was for tax cheating europeans, Indian criminals and oil money

[prole]

The real question is: How will all this effect Michael Jackson's standard of living?

[archenemy]

Well, he is purportedly fighting an infection in his face right now. So I'd say not good.

[STP]

Not down and out yet.

 

Tax-free, a high standard of living, low-cost accommodation and access to the savers of the Middle East, Dubai continues to hold the future of global banking in its hands.

Perhaps a move to Dubai will be the last thing on the minds of senior bankers these days, and it might be difficult to achieve for banks that have been effectively nationalized and therefore have to stay in their uncompetitive home bases.

 

But money always flows to the lowest cost, most efficient location, and that will be Dubai for the financial world. And the Dubai property crash just increases this cost advantage.

--Global banks eye Dubai to cut costs and motivate staff /February 11, 2009

 

“Our industry is facing unprecedented challenges that demand a truly borderless response,” Ferling said. “From Dubai, Microsoft will be centrally located for ready access to our customers in the prevailing and emerging energy centers of the world. Future demand growth will come largely from countries like China, India and the Middle East. Dubai, located midway between Central Europe and the Far East, is ideal for business travel to all oil capitals, from Houston to Beijing. And with the power ultimately shifting from consumer to producer in the global energy equation, the Middle East is an important location for Microsoft and our partners.”

 

...we have moved from residing solely on our customer’s desktops to accompanying them deep into field operations...

--Microsoft Locates Worldwide Oil and Gas Business in Dubai /Feb. 10, 2009

[prole]

 

Thanks for the corporate press-releases, STP. Guess those banks will be using automated tellers...

 

February 12, 2009

Laid-Off Foreigners Flee as Dubai Spirals Down

By ROBERT F. WORTH

 

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Sofia, a 34-year-old Frenchwoman, moved here a year ago to take a job in advertising, so confident about Dubai’s fast-growing economy that she bought an apartment for almost $300,000 with a 15-year mortgage.

 

Now, like many of the foreign workers who make up 90 percent of the population here, she has been laid off and faces the prospect of being forced to leave this Persian Gulf city — or worse.

 

“I’m really scared of what could happen, because I bought property here,” said Sofia, who asked that her last name be withheld because she is still hunting for a new job. “If I can’t pay it off, I was told I could end up in debtors’ prison.”

 

With Dubai’s economy in free fall, newspapers have reported that more than 3,000 cars sit abandoned in the parking lot at the Dubai Airport, left by fleeing, debt-ridden foreigners (who could in fact be imprisoned if they failed to pay their bills). Some are said to have maxed-out credit cards inside and notes of apology taped to the windshield.

 

The government says the real number is much lower. But the stories contain at least a grain of truth: jobless people here lose their work visas and then must leave the country within a month. That in turn reduces spending, creates housing vacancies and lowers real estate prices, in a downward spiral that has left parts of Dubai — once hailed as the economic superpower of the Middle East — looking like a ghost town.

 

No one knows how bad things have become, though it is clear that tens of thousands have left, real estate prices have crashed and scores of Dubai’s major construction projects have been suspended or canceled. But with the government unwilling to provide data, rumors are bound to flourish, damaging confidence and further undermining the economy...

 

...Dubai, unlike Abu Dhabi or nearby Qatar and Saudi Arabia, does not have its own oil, and had built its reputation on real estate, finance and tourism. Now, many expatriates here talk about Dubai as though it were a con game all along. Lurid rumors spread quickly: the Palm Jumeira, an artificial island that is one of this city’s trademark developments, is said to be sinking, and when you turn the faucets in the hotels built atop it, only cockroaches come out.--from NYT 2/15/09

 

 

[STP]

Some see Armageddon,

Others, a new beginning.

 

But yeah, you gotta recognize who's selling what.

 

[video:youtube]7eUcRjo9Yv4

 

[video:youtube]_BnqCMyV43E

 

Peter J. Cooper’s Weblog

[tvashtarkatena]

and still others see a doo-by.

[ZimZam]

I'd much rather have a doobie while listening to Dookie. But I wouldn't want dookie while listening to the Doobie Bros.

[tvashtarkatena]

Do be a Do Bee. Don't be a Doo Kie.

[tvashtarkatena]

Romper Room was OK, but Romper Stomper Room would have been better.

[JayB]

Past due buy.

 

almost no taxation, rule of law, it follows from Milton Friedman that this would be a socially liberal paradise right?

 

Oh, wait, it was for tax cheating europeans, Indian criminals and oil money

 

Compared to its neighbors, it certainly looks like one.

 

I think that the argument was that political and economic liberties are mutually reinforcing and the latter can act as an essential check on state power - not that Lubbock Texas and Venice Beach will have the same social attitudes because the citizens there have the same economic rights.

 

 

 

[billcoe]

Jayb: as you were the only one around here who consistently put your money where your mouth was on overvalued real estate prices due for a downturn, I'd be greatly interested in what you see in your crystal ball going forward based on current news (stimulus package, fed interest rates near 0, etc etc) Plus, what do you think of storing some money in a foreign currency to offset a potential dollar drop?

 

Whats the best steps an individual can take right now to buttress themselves against these future uncertainties Jayb?

[prole]

Whats the best steps an individual can take right now to buttress themselves against these future uncertainties Jayb?

 

[Dechristo]

Whats the best steps an individual can take right now to buttress themselves against these future uncertainties Jayb?

 

 

BillCoe was asking of recommendation for the protection of the posterior, not anterior.

Edited February 25, 2009 by Dechristo

[j_b]

Past due buy.

 

almost no taxation, rule of law, it follows from Milton Friedman that this would be a socially liberal paradise right?

 

Oh, wait, it was for tax cheating europeans, Indian criminals and oil money

 

Compared to its neighbors, it certainly looks like one.

 

I think that the argument was that political and economic liberties are mutually reinforcing and the latter can act as an essential check on state power - not that Lubbock Texas and Venice Beach will have the same social attitudes because the citizens there have the same economic rights.

 

At moments like this it becomes obvious that JayB's vision of paradise includes "living the good life" on the back of 100,000's of asian workers who live in slave like conditions:

 

"Once they arrive in the United Arab Emirates, migrant workers are treated little better than cattle, with no access to healthcare and many other basic rights. The company that sponsors them holds on to their passports - and often a month or two of their wages to make sure that they keep working. And for this some will earn just 400 dirhams (£62) a month.

 

A group of construction engineers told me, with no apparent shame, that if a worker becomes too ill to work he will be sent home after a few days. "They are the cheapest commodity here. Steel, concrete, everything is up, but workers are the same."

 

...

 

Down at the base of the pyramid are the labourers, waiters, hotel employees and unskilled workers from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, the Philippines and beyond. They move deferentially around the huge malls, cafes, bars and restaurants, bowing down and calling people sir and madam. In the middle of the day, during the hottest hours, you can see them sleeping in public gardens under trees, or on the marble floors of the Dubai Mosque, on benches or pieces of cardboard on side streets. These are the victims of the racism that is not only flourishing in the UAE but is increasingly being exported to the rest of the Middle East. Sometimes it reminds you of the American south in the 1930s.

 

One evening in Abu Dhabi, I have dinner with my friend Ali, a charming Iraqi engineer whom I have known for two decades. After the meal, as his wife serves saffron-flavoured tea, he pushes back his chair and lights a cigar. We talk about stock markets, investment and the Middle East, and then the issue of race comes up.

 

"We will never use the new metro if it's not segregated," he tells me, referring to the state-of-the-art underground system being built in neighbouring Dubai. "We will never sit next to Indians and Pakistanis with their smell," his wife explains.

 

Not for the first time, I am told that while the immigrant workers are living in appalling conditions, they would be even worse off back home - as if poverty in one place can justify exploitation in the other.

 

"We need slaves," my friend says. "We need slaves to build monuments. Look who built the pyramids - they were slaves."

 

'Link to article: We need slaves to build monuments'

 

 

[prole]

Whats the best steps an individual can take right now to buttress themselves against these future uncertainties Jayb?

 

 

BillCoe was asking of recommendation for the protection of the posterior, not anterior.

 

Well, seeing as how he's usually talking out of his ass, a dental dam would probably be appropriate.

 

 

 

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

Edited February 25, 2009 by prole