Dubai’s financial crisis: the fall of the economic giant

I have been fascinated with Dubai for quite a few years now and have always dreamt of going there and experiencing first hand their excessively expensive lifestyle, luxurious hotels and lush attractions. However a recent article in The New York Times shows me that I’ll never get to experience that because those times are now over in Dubai and a new desperate reality has set in:

“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.”

These times are really crushing everyone, everywhere.