Word: debt
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...World, for a six-month payment standstill on its almost $60 billion of liabilities. The surprise hit stock markets in Asia and the U.S., while sending investors scrambling for safe havens like the U.S. dollar. Experts have since engaged in a rabid round of speculation over what the Dubai debt crisis might mean for the world economy. Some see the problem as little more than a big real estate bust. "I don't see what the big deal is," Willem Buiter, economist at the London School of Economics and Political Science, wrote bluntly. Others see the Dubai crisis...
...Dubai have for months breezily dismissed concerns about Dubai World, the government's main holding company for investments and real estate developments. "We are not worried," said Dubai's Emir, Sheik Mohammad bin Rashid al-Maktoum, at a press conference two months ago, despite the fact that Dubai has debts that are at least 100% of GDP - and may be closer to 125%. When critics later complained that Dubai had no realistic plans for paying off its debts, al-Maktoum told them to "shut up." But on Thursday, as Dubai's government announced it was seeking a halt...
...also realize that part of what got us here was overspending, and that that overspending was fostered by a shopping culture that uses cheap goods to hook people on feeling like they're winning at something. As a country, we held nearly $1 trillion in credit-card debt this time last year-about the same as the value of all the goods and services produced in South Korea annually. We've bought so much stuff that we've struggled to find places to fit it all. The U.S. went from having 300 million square feet of self-storage space...
...Consumer spending and debt have been on the decline of late, that's true. But the most recent numbers show signs of a return to our old ways. In October, consumer spending rose 0.7% over the previous month, according to the Commerce Department, which is particularly interesting since personal income only edged up 0.2%. It seems it's going to take more than economic calamity for us to realize that perhaps we should be more prudent with our money...
...treating them with kid gloves. The question is whether - as one local columnist put it - Arroyo is ready to "throw the kitchen sink at a loyal ally." She is widely believed to have benefited in the 2004 presidential election from votes controlled by the Ampatuans, leaving a hefty political debt. Indeed, her main rival Fernando Poe Jr., a hugely popular movie star, reportedly failed to get a single vote in three Maguindanao towns. "At the core of this horrid incident is a flawed election system that depends heavily on local political clans and warlord families to deliver votes on election...