The CBC notes that there is plenty of bad economic news to go: Dubai debt woes send world stocks stumbling

For years, Dubai World was at the forefront of Dubai’s international expansion into port operations, hotels and other assets. The slumping real estate markets in many countries combined with the overall economic recession, however, killed the organization’s financials and led to the restructuring.

European and Asian markets are taking a hit because their banks are holding Dubai debt, which was just as leveraged as everything else. Dubai was diversifying because they are running out of oil and didn’t want to revert to their former state of poverty alleviated by smuggling. No reason for them to spend their money when all these bankers were willing to lend them money at very low rates, that got lower every time they refinanced.

So now they are underwater on a lot of their commercial property holdings, i.e. they owe more money than the property is currently worth, and the cash flow has stopped. I don’t doubt that Dubai bonds were rated AAA+.

My view of Thanksgiving was skewed by my Father’s attitude. Having grown up on a poultry farm, he saw the holiday as the culmination of weeks of work “processing” dozens of turkeys to be frozen and readying a few dozen more for fresh delivery. We generally ate ham when he was alive.

Having been on my Grandfather’s farm at this time of year I can understand my Dad’s attitude: our meal was subject to interruption by people picking up a fresh turkey at the last minute. A sale is a sale when you are in business for yourself.

Thanks to Fox the WKRP turkey giveaway isn’t available on YouTube. Watching it was long a tradition at our house.

Enjoy your meal and try to forget about the world’s problems for a day – they’ll still be there on Friday.