Sorry, the article dissappeared.

Dubai gets about 6% of it's GDP from oil. I am sure the US gets a bigger % of it's GDP from oil.

For years I had read about Dubai and wondered how they can base an economy on tax free shopping and real estate speculation. They would have done better to attract manufacturing to have a stable economy. I am sure the fall will be spectacular. The article mentioned you could be thrown in debtors prison if you don't pay your car loan, or any loan I guess. That is why people are leaving there cars at the airport and fleeing back home.

Here's another one

http://www.dubaiexpatblog.com/expats-dumping-cars-flying-back-home-to-dodge-credit-crunch.html

The country actually reminds me of those "Flip this house" type of programs. The formula is, buy a cheap house, hire a bunch of immigrants willing to work cheap, sell house for a huge profit. It worked for a while.

In Dubai it is, promise Indians good jobs, pay them slave wages to build glass palaces, sell palaces to rich foreigners who don't understand harsh middle east laws.

"Moreover, the names of people who owe money to the banks are listed in the system and they wouldn’t be able to leave the country until they settle their debts. Their names will remain in the system until the banks request removal of their names from the blacklist. In order to tackle such issues, police patrols have been increased and undercover policemen have been deployed."