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Dubai Speculators Quit as Lending Drought Bursts Desert Bubble
By Glen Carey

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The classified ads in Dubai read like an obituary for a real-estate market that until a few months ago seemed immune from the global credit crisis.

A Turkish investor, who identified himself as Sebat, took out 10 bright yellow ads in the Nov. 25 edition of Gulf News, the United Arab Emirates’ biggest newspaper, with the headline: “DIRECT FROM OWNER DISTRESS SALE!!!” Sebat said he used to be able to buy four or five properties at a time and sell them the next day for a profit of as much as 5 percent.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=a2jrSPqYhVzY&refer=home

 

Jobless-Benefit Rolls in U.S. Climb to 26-Year High (Update1)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a3UvRC6IA.58&refer=home
By Shobhana Chandra and Bob Willis

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- More Americans are collecting jobless benefits than at any time in the last 26 years, a sign the labor market is weakening as the recession worsens.

A larger-than-anticipated 4.09 million fired workers received government unemployment checks in the week ended Nov. 22, the most since December 1982, the Labor Department said today in Washington. Initial jobless claims declined by 21,000 to 509,000 in the week that ended Nov. 29, which included the Thanksgiving Day holiday.

AT&T Will Eliminate 12,000 Jobs as Slump Deepens (Update1)

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aedEAaL6MIVM&refer=home
By Amy Thomson

Dec. 4 (Bloomberg) -- AT&T Inc., the largest U.S. phone company, will cut 12,000 jobs and reduce spending next year, striving to become leaner as the U.S. economy falters.

The reductions amount to about 4 percent of the workforce, and will lead to $600 million in severance expenses this quarter, Dallas-based AT&T said today in a statement. The company plans to give specific forecasts for 2009 spending in late January.