What Went Wrong In Dubai

The Wall Street Journal takes a look at what went wrong in Dubai and comes to the conclusion that it was "a poorly regulated market overrun by speculators." "Speculator" often seems to be just a word the press and politicians use after the fact to describe, derisively, investors whose bets went badly. When you see the word used that way it is often a good reason to give extra scrutiny to whatever comes along with it. Likewise, "poorly regulated" often suggests that there should have been more regulation, or more strict regulation, with the unspoken assumption that if the regulations were drafted correctly and regulators did their jobs well it would be possible to protect everyone from ever losing any money. But the reason the regulation described in the Journal article is poor is that it seemed arbitrary and non-transparent in a way that violates the rule of law and property rights.