As The Great Recession continues around the world: The United Arab Emirate of Dubai defaults on 80,000,000,000 “dollars” in debt owed to the Royal Bank of Scotland, Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation, Barclays Bank, Lloyds Bank and other commercial banks in the United Kingdom.  Dubai had taken out the loans to build “Dubai World” one of the most ambitious engineering projects ever.  Dubai World is an attempt to create the world’s ultimate tourist destination before the UAE’s petroleum wealth is exhausted.

       [added 2/12/2022] Thanks to Freedom’s Phoenix for this entry.