3,000 autos abandoned at the Dubai Airport as people flee the meltdown

[Ichingcarpenter]

Mumbai/DUBAI - JAN 14: It's the great escape by Indians who've hit the dead-end in Dubai.

Local police have found at least 3,000 automobiles -- sedans, SUVs, regulars -- abandoned outside Dubai International Airport in the last four months. Police say most of the vehicles had keys in the ignition, a clear sign they were left behind by owners in a hurry to take flight.

The global economic crisis has brought Dubai's economic progress, mirrored by its soaring towers and luxurious resorts, to a stuttering halt. Several people have been laid off in the past months after the realty boom started unraveling.

On the night of December 31, 2008 alone more than 80 vehicles were found at the airport. "Sixty cars were seized on the first day of this year," director general of Airport Security, Mohammed Bin Thani, told DNA over the phone. On the same day, deputy director of traffic, colonel Saif Mohair Al Mazroui, said they seized 22 cars abandoned at a prohibited area in the airport.

Faced with a cash crunch and a bleak future ahead, there were no goodbyes for the migrants -- overwhelmingly South Asians, mostly Indians - just a quiet abandoning of the family car at the airport and other places.

While 2,500 vehicles have been found dumped in the past four months outside Terminal III, which caters to all global airlines, Terminal II, which is only used by Emirates Airlines, had 160 cars during the same period.

http://www.daijiworld.com/news/news_disp.asp?n_id=55704&n_tit=Indians+Flee+Dubai+as+Dreams+Crash++-+Fall+out+of++Economic+Crisis

[n2doc]

1. Interesting article-thanks n/t

[arcadian]

2. Realty Boom replaced by Reality Boom

n/t

[Democrats_win]

3. Dubai too? Amazing how things turned out.

Too bad for the hard working South Asians, though.

[peacetalksforall]

4. This is better for Cheney. Stagnant and more secure. When he flees prosecution and

tells the bosses to create an anti-extradition law - if they don't already have one.

[OregonBlue]

5. Playground for the rich and famous going under. Makes my heart bleed.

How much of our tax money is stashed in their banks? Will we ever know?

[JCMach1]

7. Not in the banks... in the real estate market that is crashing

However, you can thank CITI for bailing out Dubai after the U.S. bailed-out CITI. :grr:

[aquart]

13. So that money is all gone now?

The bailout we gave the Citi criminals?

[JCMach1]

14. Here is the link about the CITI bank loans to Dubai

Also keep in mind, CITI sold 6 billion in Dubai debt at a loss in Novemeber and then turn around and give them billions more in loans AFTER they had been bailed out by the US Government.


With questions about Dubai’s looming debt obligations swirling, Citigroup Inc said it had raised $8 billion for the Persian Gulf city-state over the course of the past year and still had a positive outlook on its economy.

CitigroupChairman Win Bischoff was quoted in the bank’s statement Monday as saying Citigroup continues to see Dubai as among its “most significant markets.”

“This is in line with our commitment to the market in general, and reflects our positive outlook on Dubai in particular,” the statement quoted Mr. Bischoff as saying.

Dubai’s transformation in recent years from a sleepy backwater port to a booming financial and shipping hub has come thanks to large infrastructure projects undertaken by state-owned companies such as Emaar and Dubai World. Dubai’s growth is now under threat because the emirate has had to rely almost entirely on outside financing to fund these projects, and project finance and foreign credit lines have shrunk because of the global credit crunch and falling oil prices.

Citigroup, which enjoys a longstanding banking relationship with the emirate, voiced its confidence at a time when Dubai has attempted to reassure investors and its creditors that it is capable of servicing the $80 billion of debt that the city-state and its companies have outstanding. More urgently, Dubai has $12 billion of nonbank debt coming due in 2009, according to Fitch Ratings...

http://usa2uae.com/2008/12/19/citi-bank-loans-to-dubai-raise-the-possibility-of-future-economic-trouble-for-the-emirate/

[Zynx]

28. We have claims on Citi. That money isn't just gone.

It depends on whether or not you think Citi is worth anything. That remains to be seen.

[JCMach1]

34. Let's see, now they have divided the company into 'real' banking and the second part

is all the shit (i.e. bad investments) that are left over.

Just glad I'm not a shareholder.

[JCMach1]

6. Under the law a quick escape is essential as banks have the power

to block your leaving the country. Literally the second you lose your job, you have to plan your exit.

Dubai this year will go from 12% to 0.6% growth (if not recession) and lose as much as 8% of its population according to the most recent study. http://usa2uae.com/2009/01/16/dubais-population-could-shrink-8-this-year/

[peacetalksforall]

8. So, I guess an indicator of things getting better, is if Dubai rises back up.

[JCMach1]

11. You could say that... Dubai has been hit by a perfect economic storm

-Real estate bubble bursting
-Crashing oil prices
-World recession cutting off trade and port operations
-Recession causing a tourism crash

Dubai is almost a completely globalized economy... So, yes once all of these things return to normal, the world economy will return more or less to normal.

However, oil price is not coming back. The last time it crashed like this, it took nearly a decade for OPEC to get its act together. We are in the same sort of loop again.

[peacetalksforall]

18. Thanks. At the same time, if they crash lower than they have , they could be an

even better indicator of how far we will go down - since they are so concentrated.

I don't think I can ever believe that this was a natural happening given what we have discovered and been shown.

[PatGund]

23. Yep!

24 hours before I was supposed to leave Qatar, HSBC- Qatar froze my account and threatened to freeze my visa at the airport unless I made sure all my debts were settled.

My employer had to guarantee any debts to get the bank to unfreeze my visa and allow me to exit the country. (And when I got back to the US, HSBC-United States said there was no way they could help me get the almost $5000 left in my Qatar account because they're technically different banks)

Since then, I found out the smart expat "goes on vacation" and sends the resignation AFTER they leave the country.

[merh]

41. Under Saudi law you can be imprisoned for not paying your debts

I know a man who spent a few years in on of their jails because his business partner owed a debt to a Saudi citizen. They partner fled, leaving him holding the proverbial bag.

[I814U]

9. What?

No hybrids?

[JCMach1]

12. Hybrids... LOL

I have major doubts about battery and electric motor life in 50cent. heat. Ordinary car batteries have about half the life-span here because of that.

[daninthemoon]

10. one thing that rwers and lwers both agree on at this point: things

are going to get extremely bad. the whole world needs a jubilee year do-over: all debt cancelled, and we start over.

[Greyhound]

29. Not as crazy as it sounds.I think we would have to rework the whole banking/currency

scheme though. Of course the people that would be hurt the worst are the parasites that will currently be hurt the least, so I ain't holding my breath.

[JCMach1]

15. Keep in mind Dubai was its own kind of Ponzi scheme

Dubai is slowing running out of oil. In the 1990's Shk. Mhd. al Maktoum decided to leverage the remaining oil with huge loans from the West and the rest of the Middle East. Dubai then went on the huge building boom that many of you have read and heard about. The real estate market overheated insanely with speculators and billions in gray and black money. I have seen this myself in action (in terms of black money). As oil has now crashed... the loan payments are still due.

Eventually, they will probably have to be bailed-out by Abu Dhabi who more prudently managed their resources.

[Ichingcarpenter]

16. Thanks for your insight on this since you are there

European construction firms are tied to Dubai that
probably haven't been fully paid yet too, so there is
a spin off to this globally.

[JCMach1]

17. Even Universal Studios is delaying its opening here by 2yrs now

(if it ever gets built). Also, several hotel chains (including Trump) are re-thinking their megaprojects.

[Hekate]

38. Isn't a Dubai company in charge of US port security or some damn thing? Or did that get scotched?

Thanks if you know.

Hekate

[lunatica]

19. It's only fair that the rich feel it too

I'm sure it isn't pleasant for them right now, but that doesn't make me feel better. It has to be extremely unpleasant and life altering for the rich for me to find any satisfaction

[loudsue]

20. I hope the rich & powerful are getting schooled enough that they

will never try to keep money from the working stiff again. ONLY by paying the working people a real wage can the world economy stay afloat. ONLY by that one principal, which the working stiff SHOULD be paid anyway!

Hubris and greed creates crashes. It has always been that way, and always will be that way.

[Raksha]

27. I hope so too. I think maybe THIS time the rich will finally understand

that what they have done, essentially, is to knock the foundation out from under the global economy. The working stiffs at the bottom ARE that foundation. When the foundation is systematically weakened as it has been been for the past 30 years, eventually the whole tower collapses--the top of the tower (the rich) included.

Re ONLY by paying the working people a real wage can the world economy stay afloat. ONLY by that one principal, which the working stiff SHOULD be paid anyway!

Hubris and greed creates crashes. It has always been that way, and always will be that way.

Absolutely true. If the rich hadn't been so short-sighted and greedy, they wouldn't have to learn it the hard way.

[Greyhound]

30. Have you considered that this might be exactly what they intended?

Sure, they are going to take a hit that will look bad in print, but in the end they will still have mountains of assets and will buy up everything, and much more, at a tiny fraction of it's worth.

[Missy Vixen]

35. Why would we exult in anyone's bad fortune?

Aside from the Bush administration, and others who actively conspired to make others suffer?

Julie

[newtothegame]

21. This doesn't sound quite right...

"The global economic crisis has brought Dubai's economic progress, mirrored by its soaring towers and luxurious resorts, to a stuttering halt. Several people have been laid off in the past months after the realty boom started unraveling."

Stuttering halt, but several people have been layed off? Wouldn't it be like several hundred? Thousand?

[Qutzupalotl]

24. I think they a word out.

[Liberal_in_LA]

40. The record breaking tower has been postponed for a year... that would result in 1000s laid off

[Joanne98]

22. Ever noticed how nobody ever hires people in their own country anymore?

[mdmc]

25. Thanks for posting this OP - kick for a later read / find

:kick:

[dixiegrrrrl]

26. ty for posting this

How the mighty...............

[leveymg]

31. Here's 2 companion pieces: Indian outsourcing bubble bursts, largest Chinese computer firms crash

India's Madoff? Satyam Scandal Rocks Outsourcing Industry ...
Jan 7, 2009 ... The info tech outsourcer shocks investors with a letter outlining balance-sheet misdeeds.
www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/jan2009/gb2009017_807784.htm


http://www.reuters.com/article/companyNews/idUKTP3330420090112?symbol=0992.HK
ANALYSIS-Once mighty PC makers succumb to slowdown
Mon Jan 12, 2009 2:48am EST

Wealth is disappearing all over the world - much of it simply stolen.

[Ichingcarpenter]

32. Crunch 'cost Arabs $2.5 trillion'

The global economic crisis has cost Arab countries $2,500bn (£1,690bn) in the last four months alone, according to Kuwait's foreign minister.

Sheikh Mohammed al-Sabah told reporters in Kuwait City that oil-rich Gulf Arab states had postponed or cancelled 60% of development projects.

He did not give details for his figures, which were released days before an Arab Economic Summit.
Stock market falls and a low oil price have contributed to the losses.
The biggest loss was an estimated 40% drop in the value of Arab investments abroad, which had previously totalled around $2.5tn, AFP news agency reports.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7834829.stm

[JCMach1]

33. Worse than that 60% stopped and the rest has slowed to at least half-speed.

[JCMach1]

36. Dubai must refinance 19 billion in debt this year, or face bankruptcy

and I don't think they can count on CITI to bail them out again.

Dubai’s corporate refinancing requirements in 2009 are expected to touch $15 billion (Dh55 billion), according to credit rating agency Moody’s in its latest report.

This is nearly half of the total refinancing requirements of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), estimated at $33 billion (Dh121 billion). The UAE’s total refinancing requirements are put at approximately $19 billion (Dh70 billion).

Dubai companies in which the government has a stake, such as Dubai Holding, are included in Moody’s estimate of the figures, and the report states that “addressing these maturities will be a significant challengw... http://usa2uae.com/2009/01/17/the-government-of-dubai-will-need-19-billion-dollars-in-loans-to-stay-afloat-this-year/

[EmeraldCityGrl]

37. I feel such guilty pleasure watching the obscenely wealthy

go through what the rest of us have for sometime now.

[loudsue]

39. So... wealth truly IS magic?? It can just appear and disappear?

THAT is what is so phoney about this whole depression/recession crap. The money and wealth, if it is ever there, is either somewhere or it has disappeared. As far as my knowledge of physics would inform me, it probably did not "disappear". The whole ball of crap that we are being fed is being swallowed whole by so many people world wide.

What needs to happen is that people need to WAKE UP to what a sham the whole "economy" thing is, and start a new meme built on feeding, schooling, housing, clothing, and medically caring for each other. Governments have filled people full of so much shit for so long, we've taken it for reality. You don't have huge global wealth one day, and then the next day it evaporates. You either base what you have on something tangible, or you have a pie in the sky.