The tough go to Dubai

Picture Source: Sumera's Blog on wordpress.com

An article that tells the tale as we know it. People are flocking to the GCC in hope of the fortunes that have dried up in New York.

Reproduced in verbatim from the NY Times Dealbook.

The global economy may be in the doldrums but many young, adventurous Americans — especially those in the floundering finance industry — think they know a place where the good times will keep rolling. The latest issue of New York magazine reports on how college graduates and recently laid-off young professionals are flocking to Dubai in hopes of finding riches and riding out the credit meltdown.

The Mideast emirate, a kind of desert-turned-theme-park, is sending out signals that it is still booming despite the downturn in the world economy. The young Americans are coming to do deals, hawk condos and create marketing ads touting Dubai’s benefits.

“For the first couple years I was here, I didn’t have any American friends at all,” one Emirati, munching lasagna at his Monday-night football watching party, told the magazine. “I’ve met more Americans in the last six or seven months than in all the time before that.”

But the article points out that Dubai has not been immune from the troubles in the larger financial system: Stock and real estate prices there have dropped sharply in recent months.

The article suggests that Dubai’s status as a safe haven may be closely linked to someplace else: Abu Dhabi. “The conventional wisdom now is that what ultimately safeguards Dubai’s future is not its near-mythical energy and savvy,” the article said, “but its oil-drenched sister up the coast.”