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It’s a buyer’s market in Dubai, where mansions on coastal developments, such as Palm Jebel Ali and the Palm Jumeirah, are selling at up to 40% below their peak.  But that’s lead to government concern, and now, intervention.

From Sunday’s Financial Times:
The Dubai government on Sunday formed a high level committee to tackle the impact of the widening financial crisis on the emirate’s once booming property market.

Amid signs of a deepening real estate correction, Mohammed Alabbar, chairman of the region’s biggest developer, Emaar Properties, said the committee was exploring various options to restore confidence in the market. Real estate agents report a slump in sales activity and price reductions in some developments of as much as 40 per cent.

Emaar Properties, the main driver behind the property market boom in Dubai since foreigners …

The plummeting price of oil could cause another source of capital to dry up: the Sovereign Wealth Funds (SWFs) of the Persian Gulf. This could be another blow for global credit markets, says Irwin Greenstein. These oil-rich funds fueled with petrodollars invested trillions over the past few years, notably with high-profile infusions of billions in CitiGroup, Carlyle Group, Merrill Lynch and the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Now with oil down more than 50% from near $150 a barrel in July, the Persian Gulf is beginning to suffer from its own credit squeeze.

The bottom line is that world credit markets could suffer, further crippling the economy and the banking industry.

Persian Gulf SWFs control huge amounts of money. The combined funds of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar account for more than half the $2.5 trillion total assets of global SWFs.

As of March 2007, the UAE and Saudi Arabia had,

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It's a scary situation when after oil and gas, a country's top export is arms. Somehow I just don't see that really helping the world. Although India and China are traditionally the largest buyers, Russia has been ambitiously expanding its weapons customer portfolio and enjoying an estimated 23% growth in sales from last year. It's not even so much that scary dictators like Qaddafi and Chavez count themselves among the most enthusiastic and loyal customers, but rather what has Washington (and Israel) worried is the big bump up in arms sales to Iran, Syria, and North Korea. Today the United States decided to impose sanctions against Rosoboronexport (along with a dozen of other firms from China, Sudan, Venezuela) which prompted quick and angry responses from Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and other officials, which outlined much of the exact same arguments that critics have against Gazprom. ...

TODAY: Russian soldiers get a raise and permission to fire; Georgian conflict shows its identity crisis; Russian officials balk over economic crisis; Venezuela buys more Russian tanks; Kremlin discusses missile defense for Syria; Russian and US leaders may extend nuclear arsenal treaty; and Russia's biggest mosque opens in Grozny. Amid a report about a plan to raise the salaries of Russian army officers, there are varying accounts of the number of Russian troops killed in an ambush in the North Caucasus region over the weekend. Meanwhile, there is no confusion concerning the directive given to police in South Ossetia, who have been ordered to meet any potential assault by Georgian forces with force. "We will not allow our people and our officers to be killed," said Acting South Ossetian Interior Minister Mikhail Mindzayev. Abkhazia, for its part, remains ensconced ...

The government is to lend its four major energy companies up to $9 billion to help them survive the financial crisis. Gazprom has announced that it has offered to help Alaska develop its natural resources, and has accordingly sent a group of senior executives to anchorage. ‘The timing is as interesting as the visit itself,’ noted one analyst. Stroitransgaz, which is part-owned by Gazprom, plans to extend a gas link from Syria to Turkey with a view to supplying a European project. Syria and Russia signed a €52 million gas deal earlier in the week. New research indicates that the Gulf could deliver an extra 10 million barrels of crude oil per day by 2015. TNK-BP has started commercial oil production at its Verkhnechonsk field.

TODAY: Medvedev on presidential podcast, will push for new EU security treaty; troops to leave South Ossetia as planned; crowds mark Politkovskaya’s death; Olmert given no promises on arms sales; Syria and Russia strengthening military ties; Putin to fund film industry. President Dmitry Medvedev has used a Kremlin website to publish a ‘presidential podcast’. He used the video blog as a platform to discuss his thoughts on European energy security, and his intention to push for a new treaty. Medvedev’s anti-corruption bill is proposing to put a two-year ‘quarantine’ on officials who want to move into business. The head of the Russian troops stationed in the buffer zone around South Ossetia has announced that all troops will be withdrawn in the next 24 hours. One UK journalist says that Western policy has ‘brought ...

TODAY: Gorbachev launches own political party; Union of Right Forces in league with the Kremlin?; Lavrov says Russia not disrupting Middle East balance of power; troop set to withdraw from Georgia this week; surprise military drill. Mikhail Gorbachev and “maverick ex-KGB officer turned billionaire banker” Alexander Lebedev have announced plans to form a new opposition political party - the Independent Democratic Party of Russia. Has the Union of Right Forces been in league with the Kremlin this year? Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is defending Russia’s military ties with Syria against accusations that they disrupt the balance of power in the Middle East. But others argue that Russia is seeking to fill the region’s vacuum of power, and regaining influence there. Russia and India have extended military cooperation for another ten years.

TODAY: Georgian authorities to protest to the European Union about violations of the Sarkozy-Medvedev agreement by Russia; Corruption in Russia is at its worst for eight years, watchdog Transparency International states; Georgia states it had shot down a Russian reconnaissance drone over Georgian territory just south of South Ossetia; Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrives in China for a three-day state visit, part of a world tour including Russia, Portugal and France; . Georgian dignitaries today propose to protest to the European Union about “violations of the Sarkozy-Medvedev agreement by Russia.” Tbilisi has stressed that the agreement was violated in the village of Khurcha, a region near the border with Abkhazia, where one Georgian policeman has died and two were wounded in gunfire issuing from as of now unknown sources. Shota Utiashvili, head of the Georgian Interior Ministry information department, told ...

TODAY: Georgian authorities to protest to the European Union about violations of the Sarkozy-Medvedev agreement by Russia; Corruption in Russia is at its worst for eight years, watchdog Transparency International states; Georgia states it had shot down a Russian reconnaissance drone over Georgian territory just south of South Ossetia; Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrives in China for a three-day state visit, part of a world tour including Russia, Portugal and France; . Georgian dignitaries today propose to protest to the European Union about “violations of the Sarkozy-Medvedev agreement by Russia.” Tbilisi has stressed that the agreement was violated in the village of Khurcha, a region near the border with Abkhazia, where one Georgian policeman has died and two were wounded in gunfire issuing from as of now unknown sources. Shota Utiashvili, head of the Georgian Interior Ministry information department, told ...