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Like most people, I’m still in shock and sad about the turn of events in the life of Michael Jackson (a fellow Hoosier).  For the past 24 hours I’ve been glued to BBC and CNN International watching clips of him, for some reason MTV India sucks…oh wait they always suck.

I still get goose bumps when I see two clips, the one showing him doing the moonwalk during the Motown 25th anniversary special and the other is the Thriller video when he starts to sing “cause this is Thriller…”  The guy was a musical genius and sadly most of us let him down.

I’m guilty, whenever I would hear his name over the past several years the first thing that would come to mind – alleged child molester, what a freak! Now, I feel like a total jacka!@$, because when he was alive I treated him like a leper and now that he is gone – a legend.

I personally could not have helped him, but what about his friends from the past – Quincy Jones, Jesse Jackson, Ron Burkle, etc… The more I read online, the more it appears his inner circle of handlers were rotten to the core and only looking out for themselves.  It seems he had a revolving door of business managers, financial advisors and attorneys, I’m sure all were “yes” men.

The only person that should have gotten compenstated is the brains behind the acquistion of the Beatles music catalog. In 1985, MJ paid $47.5 million for ATV, which included the Beatles songs. MJ sold 50 percent of his interest to Sony for $90 million, creating a joint venture, Sony/ATV. Current estimates of the catalog’s value exceed $1 billion.

The legal battle for his kids and assets have only begun.  I’m assuming he willed his estate to his kids and hence everyone will want to take care of the kids.  The concerned parties will each have their take on why “it’s in the best interest of the kids to stay with xyz…”

Anyways, back to CNN International and remembering a living legend that is no more.

The Atlantis Hotel located on Palm Jumeirah in Dubai had it’s grand opening on Nov 20th, 2008 the same day the world equity markets were hitting multi-year lows. The hotel is based on the mythical Lost City of Atlantis, the irony is that Dubai seems to be some what lost at the moment – massive debt, collapsed economy, over capacity and no one stepping up to save it.

Back in 1998 I spent several weeks working in Dubai and the common theme was “I’m just waiting to get my US visa and then moving.”  In 2005, it changed to “Dubai is the place to be, it’s the Hong Kong/London of the Middle East.” I would constantly hear from friends and business associates who said Dubai was the place to be, “it had more money then God” and if anything goes wrong Abu Dhabi would bail it out. Abu Dhabi is one of the world’s largest oil producers and home to Abu Dhabi Investment Authority the monster USD 1 trillion sovereign wealth fund.

The Dubai myth is over.  It’s clear Dubai has more borrowed money than God and Abu Dhabi is quietly buying marquee assets at distressed prices some of the names being thrown around are the real estate company Nakheel, the Emirates airline and the Dubai Metro.

Several family and friends went to Dubai two weeks ago and got to see it first hand. Malls were empty even with the Dubai Shopping Festival going on.  Most construction had stopped and high end villas were down 40-50%. People are leaving their cars at the airport and heading back home. The last statement might be hype but the reality is Dubai is bust no matter what metric you look at.

All this is not really surprising to me, what is shocking is the velocity of how fast it collapsed. Back in July 2008 major news organizations where talking about how Dubai would weather the global economic storm because of the growth potential. I remember talking to several people in early September (pre Lehman bankrupty) and they kept on telling me how great Dubai was doing even with the world markets collapsing. If Dubai can collapse then anything is possible.

Below are several links detailing the boom and bust of Dubai.

Boom:
CBS’s 60 Minutes – July 2008
NY Times - July 2008. Some great quotes…laughable now.

Bust:
DW-TV (via YouTube) - February 2009
CBS News (via YouTube) – February 2009
NY Times – February 2009

Last weekend was the 2009 edition of the Mumbai Marathon. For the 3rd time I participated in the Mumbai half marathon (13.1 miles, 21.1km). I ran the half  in 2:07:14 which is a personal best for me, the previous 2 Mumbai half marathons I completed the run in 2:16. I ran over 200 miles practicing for the half marathon and expected to shave maybe 5 minutes off my time, but to shave over 9 minutes off my time felt pretty damn good.

Goodbye to 2008 and HELLO to 2009. I’ll keep this post short and sweet, my resolution for 2009 is around getting back to basics.

Also, if you are reading this via an RSS reader, checkout my new blog layout. It’s a whole new interface for 2009.

A bit delayed – Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all. I’m sure many of you are ready to put 2008 behind us, it’s been one helluva ride. My recap: financial crisis, home values melting, car sales plummeting, wealth erosion, Beijing olympics, President Elect Obama but most tragic was the Mumbai terror attack on Nov 26. I’m really looking forward to 2009 and hope things get better, but from all the data that is coming out the financial outlook is even gloomier then 2008. My plan for 2009: more vacations, getting in shape and getting back to basics!!

On a side note this is my 300th blog post…thanks again!