Comments on: Leveraged desert real estate (squared)

By: Bailouts

Bailouts — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:21:00 +0000

My kids are going to be p/o’d when they’re older and read about these bailouts in the history books.

By: Johnson County KS Real Estate

Johnson County KS Real Estate — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 17:51:56 +0000

I find it tough to bash them, hindsight is always 20/20. I’m sure they could have been a little more conservative with their investment, but boom in Vegas was too much to avoid, I think.

By: Namke von Federlein

Namke von Federlein — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 21:14:02 +0000

I am very happy to hear about the Dubai investments in Las Vegas and I am particularly happy that you mention them on your blog.

The world of the richest is a very small place. 40,000 people – worldwide.

I guess I would say : people don’t just invest to make money (especially if they are worth billions – ie so much money that it would be hard to spend it in 100 lifetimes).

In passing : the average US salary is $50k ? In other words, the average American will earn (in 40 years of hard work) – $2 million dollars. Which they use to pay for their house, their food, their kids and everything else. Now get this – many of them actually manage to save a couple of bucks along the way.

So, you can imagine how Americans feel about trillion dollar bailouts for botched banks, hedge funds, et al.

Lots to be said – but Dubai (in my opinion) made excellent investments in Las Vegas. There’s more to life than follow the money? aka friends?

By: internationalist

internationalist — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:54:13 +0000

Brad-

Something off topic, but this certainly puts a smile on my face (as it was a suggestion I had in 2008…). Maybe you can add your thoughts/input on Americas-China relationship later date. I know this is 5* for friends across on 68th:)

“China Plans More Trade, Investment in Latin America, Zhou Says”

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aEK3kCAe9wew&refer=latin_america

By: jonathan

jonathan — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 16:25:31 +0000

Trivia thing: Arab investors have a history of going into casinos. Why? Arab money backed London gambling but more ridiculously the first major development planned (and actually built) by the Palestinian Authority was a casino in Jericho.

BTW, I passed math but not arithmetic.

By: cmc313

cmc313 — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 13:30:04 +0000

A brokerage report estimates that Dubai’s population has now dropped 17%. More than 90% of the population was expats…them leaving in droves means the economy has little chance recovering. This desert miracle turned out to be a mirage.

By: Daily Digest for 2009-03-28 - Will Dearman Lifestream

Daily Digest for 2009-03-28 - Will Dearman Lifestream — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 06:14:47 +0000

[...] Shared a link on Google Reader. Leveraged desert real estate (squared) [...]

By: guest

guest — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 05:27:42 +0000

Brad,

It’s clear that you don’t work for Economic Council of Internal Relations.

I’m getting up of so much grey out-sourcing!

But let’s rock paying double for the morning coffee.

By: bsetser

bsetser — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:25:40 +0000

glad to see that Kansas has decided to raise its minimum wage. About time too. MAybe nothing is wrong with kansas after all. If only the jayhawks had played a bit better in the last four minutes of the game last night, i would say things are looking good …

By: Simon

Simon — Sat, 28 Mar 2009 23:19:01 +0000

I was alway jealous of the salaries paid to engineers working in Dubia but I never understood the point of it all. So I’m not at all surprised.

We humans love to build. Unfortunately our pleasure in the process easily gets in the way of objective evaluation of the sustainability of the resources we allocate to what we build.