Filed under: Economy After the world’s experience with sub-prime lending, probably the worst call a prognosticator can make about a debt crisis is that it will remain “contained.” So here goes nothing: Chances that the would-be deadbeats in Dubai will set off a series of defaults among emerging market countries seem very, very remote. When Dubai World, the investment arm of the Disney World city-state, said it would miss a $3.5 billion bond payment (a fraction of its $60 billion to $100 billion in liabilities), emerging market stocks swooned and the U.S. dollar soared — pretty much the opposite of the global reflation trade that has done so much to repair our battered 401(k)s. In other words, things were looking ugly. Cut to Monday — and with the exception of shares in Europe, whose banks own 70% of Dubai World’s debt — the dollar is once again falling and our beloved emerging markets are trudging hesitantly upward. From Wednesday’s to Friday’s close, EEM, the iShares MSCI Emerging Markets exchange-traded fund ( EEM ), coughed up 4%, while the dollar spiked on a global flight to safety. Give investors a weekend to digest the news and voila: EEM is posting some fractional gains and the dollar has resumed its slide . Continue reading Dubai debt crisis is contained — and hardly a surprise Dubai debt crisis is contained — and hardly a surprise originally appeared on DailyFinance on Mon, 30 Nov 2009 13:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink | Email this | Comments

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Dubai debt crisis is contained — and hardly a surprise

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