Thursday, November 26, 2009

Is This Anything? Dubai and Israel

As Letterman would say, is this anything?
  • Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netenyahu says he intends to halt residential construction in West Bank settlements for 10 months (link).
And this?
  • Dubai triggered the bigest sovereign debt default since Argentina in 2001 (link).
I should have thought that both were pretty big deals, but my paper New York Times put both inside. The Israeli plan does seem to have been hit with a withering fusillade of abuse from those who say that it's not nearly enough, etc. I did catch George Mitchell's press conference yesterday afternoon, where you got the feeling he wasn't sure himself whether it was a big deal.

Dubai, meanwhile, certainly seems to have shaken up a bunch of bankers. But isn't it the kind of thing we've seen coming for months? (Update: Well, lots of people are expressing surprise.)

FWIW, my Google aggregator is paying a lot of attention to Dubai, almost none to Israel. Just tells you about my choice of sources, I guess.

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