Dubai: running scared

The UAE central bank’s actions look like a confidence trick. The Gulf state has guaranteed retail deposits in local banks and interbank lending. The idea is to shore up confidence in the country’s ailing stock markets – the Abu Dhabi Exchange and Dubai Financial Market have halved in value so far this year. But the real problem is that markets seem to indicate an economic slowdown – and the central bank’s actions won’t remedy that. The UAE insists its banks don’t have credit problems. True, loa...