Psalm 123: Dubai Effectively Defaults

In an after hours announcement, Dubai World announced its intention to seek rescheduling of debt due December 14. This roiled stock markets around the planet the next day.

Psalm 123

Theoretical Time:

  • 13000-11-08 DH 14:5:29 AA
  • 2009-11-25 07:42:17 TMMT
  • 2009-11-25 05:21:23 GMT
  • 2009-11-25 00:21:23 EST

26 Psalms 123


1To you, I lift up my eyes, you who lives in the skies.
2Look, as the eyes of servants look towards their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden look towards her mistress; so our eyes also look towards Yahvah our god, until he will have mercy on us.


3Have mercy on us, Yahvah, have mercy on us; for we have heard a great deal of contempt.
4Our soul has enough of the scorn of mockers, and enough of the contempt of the proud.

Debt Default

The announcement was considered a notice to default, even though the money was not due until December 14, 2009. The timing of the announcement was about 12 hours after theoretical, due in part to time this after the work day in Dubai, and after the last work day before Islamic holidays begin. The next work day is Monday, 4 days later.

Matches

The Psalm is organized around a crowd of believers asking God for mercy. The announcement immediately triggered problems in European banks which are already in trouble from the debt crisis. The next day the started issuing statements about the amount of money they have at risk. The term "contagion" was used because of the risk that this failure triggers a much broader collapse. Thus the prayer, "have mercy on us, oh God."

Verse 2 uses several examples of servants to masters, which is the relationship between a borrower and a lender, a match.

Verse 3 uses the term "contempt." In a legal sense, failure to do what a judge asks is considered "contempt" of the court. In this case the borrowers of Dubai were demonstrating contempt of their loan agreements.

Verse 4 ends with "enough." The Dubai World organization had used this borrowed money in such deals as buying out US ports. Presumably this was borrowing western money to buy out western assets, a massive form of contempt.

By Phil Stone
Revised 13000-11-09 (2009-11-26)