Tag Archives: Dirham

The bubble to end all bubbles

That is what I saw mere minutes ago. It was yesterday’s piece at the Financial Review. An opinion piece by Gita Gopinath. Now normally I tend to ignore opinion pieces, but due to the fact that over time Financial Review has shown a good back on several matters and I picked up on the title ‘The crash that could torch $US35trn of wealth’ (at https://www.afr.com/wealth/investing/the-crash-that-could-torch-us35trn-of-wealth-20251016-p5n31w) gives pause for alarm. As America has its tourism issues, its economy issue and its technology issues a $35,000 billion write-off would be nothing less than a disaster in the making. I wrote about this a few times, but even I shudder to think of how large this bubble has become. The 2008 crash was half of that and the documentary Inside Job does a great way to explain this. Take this movie together with the movie Margin Call and you get a picture of what was done to the people of the world.

This is more than 100% worse and it started with the delusional setting of salespeople taking the easy road and giving the rest of the world how amazing AI was going to be. The quote “I calculate that a market correction of the same magnitude as the dotcom crash could wipe out over $US20 trillion ($30 trillion) in wealth for American households, equivalent to roughly 70 per cent of American GDP in 2024. This is several times larger than the losses incurred during the crash of the early 2000s. The implications for consumption would be grave. Consumption growth is already weaker than it was preceding the dotcom crash. A shock of this magnitude could cut it by 3.5 percentage points, translating into a 2-percentage-point hit to overall GDP growth, even before accounting for declines in investment” should stop you in your tracks. With the additional “Foreign investors could face wealth losses exceeding $US15 trillion, or about 20 per cent of the rest of the world’s GDP. For comparison, the dotcom crash resulted in foreign losses of around $US2 trillion, roughly $US4 trillion in today’s money and less than 10 per cent of rest-of-world GDP at the time. This stark increase in spillovers underscores how vulnerable global demand is to shocks originating in America” was not unknown to me, but I did not figure on the damage exceeding 10 trillion, here I see I was off by 50% (which comes due to a lack of an economic degree on my side), but data I know, in and out. I saw some of this and I tried to warn people and especially the Emirati people (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2025/10/20/the-start-of-something-bad/) in ‘The start of something bad’ only two days ago. And the reason why it would be worse is seen in the next setting of the Financial Review. We are given “Historically, the rest of the world has found some cushion in the dollar’s tendency to rise during crises. This “flight to safety” has helped mitigate the impact of lost dollar-denominated wealth on foreign consumption. The greenback’s strength has long provided global insurance, often appreciating even when the crisis originates in America, as investors seek refuge in dollar assets. There are, though, reasons to believe that this dynamic may not hold in the next crisis. Despite well-founded expectations that American tariffs and expansionary fiscal policy would bolster the dollar, it has instead fallen against most major currencies.” I kinda saw that two days ago, but not to this degree (the Financial Review writes it better) When that bubble burst it will not allow for shelter and the people involved will be hit massively. As I see it Nvidia will survive by will see its value decreased by 90%. Oracle will get hit less but it will still take a beating. Microsoft will be up for sale in the bargain basement and after builder.ai, the bubble will stick to them like gum in hair and they will not be able to shake the event. Others (Google, IBM, Amazon) will be hit, but they will get through this. As I see it, the only high standard that is maintained will be Adobe. Their “AI” options are soundly set in Deeper Machine Learning. As I see it, they will tend to be the shelter of choice if at all possible. 

The only part I disagree with is “Although this does not mark the end of the dollar’s dominance, it does reflect growing unease among foreign investors about the currency’s trajectory. Increasingly, they are hedging against dollar risk – a sign of waning confidence.” As I see it, the dollar comes to an end with this bubble. I do not know what people will rush to, but the dollar is no longer the place to be. As I see it there will be a flock going towards the Yuan, the Dirham and the Bitcoin, but personally I have no idea if the Bitcoin survives. You see, a $35,000 write-off will come from some currency and those hiding in Bitcoin will lose a lot, no telling how much, but it will be close to astronomical. The Financial Review gives us “Perceptions of the strength and independence of American institutions, particularly the Federal Reserve, play a crucial role in maintaining investor confidence.” That independence is close to obsolete. This administration took care of that with all the tariffs, all the tourist settings and the economy is also shaky. It might not be but someone took the trouble of not reporting the ‘goodness’ of their setting. The labour statistics are nowhere to be found and that is shaking investor confidence. All that whilst Paramount is shaking thousands of people of their employment tree, this year alone Microsoft shed 15,000 jobs, IBM is said to have fired 21,000 jobs, making Google’s 100 job losses trivial in comparison. In this setting and with the missing labor statistics the investor confidence would be in the basement and even if the Federal reserve doused that paper in the scent of Luis Vuitton it would not matter much. At present Saudi Arabia and the UAE are the best places for these investors and America knows this. They have oil to fall back on and as I see it, no matter how the AI bubble bursts, they can retrench this into service roles and data acquisition roles. That is what Europe fears, American held data used to safely drip the economy to health using IP values from everywhere. And this is not the first time I wrote about this in ‘That one flaky promise’ (at https://lawlordtobe.com/2022/01/29/that-one-flaky-promise/) where I saw the dangers of America ‘annexing’ whatever it had and that was BEFORE AI and the bubble it created. I swear that danger almost 4 years ago. That setting will implode the rest of what America thought they would have. As I see it, a strong setting of IP and storage of it could help both Saudi Arabia and the UAE (a likely preferred choice) to evade to (those who can afford it) because when this bubble goes it will wipe out whatever most of us hold for dear and those who had their patents in the US. This is mere (intense) speculation, but do you think that this American administration will not do this? It had no trouble with tariffs and the setting of THEIR ‘big beautiful America’ at the expense of everything. They even tried to make Canada and Greenland part of America. I don’t think so and as I see it, when that bubble goes America is pretty much done for. All because Americans believe that Cash is King. So their salespeople live by the dollar and will waste it at a moments notice for their personal needs. Should you doubt that please watch Inside Job and see what they did there. I reckon that Iceland is now getting back on its feet al will enjoy the view on the impact crater that Wall Street leaves behind. 

I need to end this with a word of caution. This was base on an opinion piece, so as that is wrong, so is my view. But I based it on the data I had available and the prediction that I saw in 2022, so there was no AI bubble at that time. So is my view more accurate now? That cannot be said and it is based on what desperate people do and as I see it America is about to become really desperate. So enjoy your coffee today, which I will do also and I will assist a young woman named Aloy help her defeat some machines. They were not Microsoft products, so they should work. Now lets make them a lot less functional and that Deathbringer looks like a right monster.

Have a great day and try not to get too depressed by the not so good news I am partially bringing.

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Point of service

That is at times the question. We are so overwhelmed with cost and points of profit that we ignore the essential first step. What is a point of service. Luckily the United Arab Emirates gives us this setting. The Khaleej Times gave me (really) early this morning (at https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae/travelling-to-uae-free-esim-with-10gb-data-launched-for-tourists) ‘Travelling to UAE? Free eSIM with 10GB data launched for tourists’ This is an absolute wow moment. In stead of getting ripped off with roaming costs and so on, you have the option of a free eSim with 10GB of data. 

2GB keeps me in power for days, as such this solution will have a decent setting. It might not solve all issues you have, but you have a solution that will get you to your hotel with internet. I (paranoid as I am) see a few hitches, but ‘it can be self-activated by simply scanning a QR code’ an eSim option at any airport could relieve so much stress, it might not get you call options initially, but you have options. The press release gives us “A statement issued by the UAE’s largest telecom services provider said that visitors can activate their ‘Free Visitor Line eSIM’ as soon as they pass through immigration. The free eSIM also comes with 10GB of complimentary data and is valid for a day, ensuring visitors can connect with loved ones and access essential services immediately.” So it might just be for a day and that is enough. You can email family and friends where you are and from there find a more wholesome solution. Perhaps they will even have that as well. Remember, by handing out a free eSim (even if it’s just for a day) could easily be converted into a month for a few dirham more (AED35 to be exact, which amounts to $9.5) business from service, a not so novel idea that has been forgotten for too long. The first step is offered free of charge and with that in under an hour you will have emailed all your friends (both of them), gained your bearing and the quickest way to your hotel. From there you will learn where the free wifi is (of buy some option that doesn’t make you poor in roaming cost). And in this case the provider Etisalat and has you covered with a free internet connection for a day. And that is dirt cheap, I have paid a lot more for less bandwidth. They offer 30 minutes of talk time and up to 5GB of data. A simple setting but think of it, you merely need to be reachable and you have to be able to read your email. All that for a mere $10 bucks. That is beside the point that you got your first day for free, a complimentary gift from the UAE government. I say, it is all kinds of a win with a shawarma and an ice-water and coffee all around. 

I think that these kinds of service points will gain the telecom company a lot of visibility. It might merely be Abu Dhabi and Dubai in the first instance, but when this gets going it will be a visibility all over the middle east. Now consider how many people pass an airport. Dubai is (as I recall) in second place with 86,994,365 (2023) people clocking in. Now consider Jeddah (42,910,407 passengers), Doha (45,916,098 passengers) and Cairo (14,711,500 passengers). Now consider what options Etisalat and has in the coming future. They might not all select them, some of these passengers are coming home and already have a provider. The simple equation is that they be able to show others how good their services are. 

I just think that someone working from the point of service perspective has options and they get an increasing amount of opportunity. For me, it was just another pleasant surprise coming to me from the United Arab Emirate, via the Khaleej Times that is. 

Have a great day you all and as I am now 20 minutes from the start of the middle of the week (Wednesday), you all enjoy the rest of Tuesday left to you. 

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