Back from Dubai

Dubai Observations . . .

1. Dubai is in big trouble financially. There is so much over building that it may take 10 years to absorb the excess real estate there. Residential values declined 52% in 2009 alone. In some areas, every other building has a crane on top of it. Reminded me of the cities in China that I visited.

2. The Burj Khalifa is pretty darn cool. Went up to the observatory on the 124th floor, walked outside (yes, outside) and looked up and saw another 40 story building above us.

3. Business is business. There are a lot of universities, hospitals, biotech research centers, etc... being built in the region. This region is trying to develop in a hurry (maybe before the oil runs out).

4. Did you know that only 15% of the population of Dubai is actually from Dubai. The remaining 85% is from someplace else and has limited rights (i.e. can't buy real estate, for instance) or are on time limited sponsorship deals to come there and work for a few years. One Pakistani taxi driver told me he was there on a three year contract, gets paid $500 a month to drive his taxi 12 hours a day, seven days a week. And, he lives in company dormitory with 7 other taxi drivers in the same room. Not such a wonderful life.

Political Observations . . .

1. I like Jon Stewart and find him very amusing and entertaining. However, his recent interview with John Yoo (of Justice Dept torture memo fame) highlighted one significant problem with those that get their "news" analysis from watching Jon Stewart; he is hopelessly tethered to his political beliefs. Even after basically admitting he did not know enough on the subject to hold a serious conversation with John Yoo, he clung to his preconceived notions on the subject. It is very interesting indeed to watch the interview (which you can find in three parts on hulu.com). I highly recommend it for those that are Jon Stewart fans. Pay particular attention to his mea culpa after the third episode, but make sure you watch all three all the way through.

Personally, I found John Yoo to be extremely intelligent, calm, cool and collected (but I'm not buying his book). He basically toasted Jon Stewart. Say what you will about the politics of the topic they discussed, the legal argument in that interview was not challenged by Stewart.

2. Obama's Bank Tax. Is going to be paid by you and me. So, basically, the Government takes our tax money and bails out these financial institutions. Then the President says we need to get "our" money back and he imposes a tax on the financial institutions . . . which the banks will turn around and pass on to us so they can pay us back our money . . . does this make sense to anyone?

3. Bonus Schmonus. While I certainly understand the frustration of people who feel that it is "unfair" for financial institutions to give out bonuses to their high performers during a recession, and immediately after the Government bailed these firms out (which made it possible for them to earn those bonuses), to me this is just more political posturing and posing.

We can't have it both ways. Either these are private companies, or they are not. If they are private, then they get to decide how much to pay their people. If they are public, then let's get this over with and nationalize them.

4. According to the Office of Personnel Management;

- 19% of Federal workers earn over $100,000 a year (before overtime and bonus).

- Average pay of Federal workers is over $71,000, compared to $40,000 in private industry.

- Over 10,000 people at the Department of Defense make over $150,000 a year.

- In the last 18 months, the number of Department of Transportation employees making over $170,000 a year has ballooned from 1 to 1,690.

These are interesting figures.

All for now.