A brief return from the salt mines...

I've been tied down by budget mode at work for the past few weeks, but it is beginning to let up.

Here's an interesting story on Dubai on how they continue to build office buildings despite no demand for them:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-22/dubai-can-t-kick-its-building-habit-as-glut-forces-prices-lower.html

I would always like to remind people that just building new office buildings and apartments does not cause prosperity. When I was a little kid I always wondered why Milwaukee's skyline was not more impressive and vowed that, if I were mayor, I would build a bunch of great big buildings and that would revitalize the city's economy. Even if I had the power to do that, it wouldn't accomplish much unless there were the businesses to come in. Of course, in the long run, Milwaukee office space would see rents so low that maybe it would fill up over time, but nearly everyone commercial office building owner would go bankrupt in the meantime.

This is worth noting when we look at China's massive building projects.Any source