Dubai's Economy Is In Deep Trouble - Here's Why

Dubai is a money making machine driven by a strategic vision, careful planning and some really smart decisions from the past decades that ended up creating a one-of-a-kind economic model.

But now something has changed. And after decades of working just fine, Dubai's economic engine is now for the first time ever in serious danger. And if the emirate wants to survive, it needs to change - radically and very soon.

00:00 - Intro
02:42 - The Birth of the Dubai Miracle
07:08 - The World Has Changed

[jilliango]

im living here in dubai. and most of the salary here is not enough to afford a rent on those real estate. most people here are sharing low cost rental flats. those skyscrapers are half empty to be honest.

[disposabull]

There is something you are missing about the Dubai property market, money laundering.
The west has fairly strict rules for checking the source of your income, Dubai doesn't.
If you have a few million in illicit cash that you want to clean up, you buy a property in Dubai, wait a couple of years, sell it to the next "investor" and then move your millions to London or New York who are perfectly happy to only do a one level check when you say you made millions investing in the Dubai property market.
There is staggering amounts of money laundering going through the Dubai property market, replicating the "discreet" network of dodgy bankers & lawyers that Dubai has attracted over the last few decades will be more difficult than building a few skyscrapers.

[christianr.]

I was in Dubai in winter, stayed on Jumeirah Palm for some days. On our side of palm, there were hotels and on the other side, right in front of us, private villas. The villas looked great and the beach in front of them was full of white, pretty sand, the sea was deep blue and clean. and guess what, not a single soul was in those villas. I didn't see a single light in those houses. It was clear, why, once I checked the prices: starting from 3-4 million dollars and more. Somehow is demand/supply stuff not working here, you have hundreds of luxury villas staying vacant but the prices are still record high.... all in all, it looked very artificial...

[rzk]

i have friends doing blue collar jobs in Dubai. Workplace safety is very very poor and they are constantly threatened by their bosses (who are also from another third world country). Life down there in the lowest rung of society is very bad, and they mostly feel alienated looking at all those sky scrapers and fancy restaurants. Unwritten rules like blue collar is solely reserved for south asian workers exist there.

[heijin]

I just came back from Dubai where I have a lot of friends living and working. All of them have one goal and it is to make enough money to by home in there own countries and leave Dubai as soon as possible. Dubai not being able to make people feel at home will destroy it sooner than expected!!! I hope that changes and Dubai survives but who knows ...

[myranoname]

Without the healthy middle class, no country can survive. A country must produce something or provide some kind of service or have some source of real economic foundation, without that Dubai miracle won’t last.

[spurgendahl]

There might be some remarkable similarity between Dubai and Masterworks. Both collect huge amounts of money, which some day will prove to be taken by a desert storm.

[ilanamillion]

Dubai's treatment of the foreign workers who do all the work is shocking and unacceptable by anyone's standards.

[penskepc]

Pretends to be the richest city on earth when Boston has twice as many billionaires 😂

[rubberroast]

If 90 % of people there are foreign, either as labourer or investor or temp, I doubt many of them will want to stick around once the growth there recedes. In fact once it starts it will probably accelerate very fast. I know people who lived there, and always only considered being there temporarily, never permanent

[beckysam]

in short: the economic growth is based on Ponsi Scheme or Multi Level Marketing, as long as they can sell stuff and get money in, they can pay previous bills, but in the future when no one wants buy apartment as investment anymore, the system collapses. the town isnt really build for working class, that keep the society running, the city is not resilient or sustainable, everything from drinking water, vegetables, grain, meat need to be imported or very costly in small units produced. all these luxury sites and apartments are empty or hotels for tourists, taking space away from people who could actually live, work and invest there but greed will destroy it, along rising sea level, they can not do much against rising sea level and sand storms from the land side.

[jakeMontejo]

The artificial, Disney like culture does appeal to a certain kind of individual. But once you are there for sometime, it wears on you, especially if this is your year round residence and don't have homes in other countries. It's great for a class of individual who is wealthy enough to leave, when necessary. The culture of a city creates a vibe that takes multiple generations to achieve. Dubai is the definition of new money. It's a fascinating test city, only time will tell if this is sustainable.

[alexsteven.m]

Impressive video. I started a bit late (graduated from my doctorate program at age 30 in 2014 with 170k in school loan debt). Managed to pay off my debt by 2019 and currently have a house and 250k total in investments (combo of profit share, 401k and a brokerage account). I'm not very knowledgeable in investing, so I just have my investing currently in index funds mainly Too but have been putting a lot into Schd the past few months. I don’t know if that's the optimal strategy, but psychologically it is very set it and forget it, and prevents me from obsessing over individual stock performance.

[Billydevito]

Like all amusement parks, Dubai will lose its novelty. Dubai has foolishly poured its oil money into poor investments that are nothing but show pieces that are expensive to maintain and will lose their appeal after a few years.
Instead of long term investments that will benefit Dubai and the world, they build extravagant projects that cannot provide a positive payback.

[socalstr]

The shock to me is that Dubai has been able to "hold on" for as long as it has.

[sandifenandes]

Any country solely dependent on tourism is going to suffer with people traveling a lot less these days. Rent is too expensive in Dubai for investors. There are current projects in Dubai that are sitting unfinished and with no new investment.

[bahijarhafiri]

Taking early notes from Warren as to the importance of sound asset diversification and risk management It can’t be overstated. I’ve been trying to grow my portfolio of $300K for sometime now, I would greatly appreciate any other suggestions.

[williamlee]

I invested in a hotel project in Dubai the money was stolen by uniestate through Standard Chartered Bank Do not invest in Dubai or Standard Chartered Bank

[valentinalexandru]

A smart thing would be for them to keep the tax free environment despite economical challenges. As soon as they start levying taxes, they will chase ppl away, they will have a crash in real estate and basically accelerate their way down.

[jeremygood]

Every family has that one person who will break the family's financial struggle, I hope you become the one 😊