Dubai World, Emirate's flag bearer in global investments, is undergoing a $22 billion debt restructuring. This has provoked a lot of speculations and an air of uncertainty has started to settle over the financial market. As a consequence, bond yields as well the debt insurance cost of Dubai World has started to shoot up. This looks particularly striking when you think of the recent billion dollar bailout of Dubai by Abu Dhabi.

The finance world was virtually speechless when this investing giant declared in November that it is going for a debt payment standstill. Dubai World can proceed with debt payments owing to the extremely expensive bailout by Abu Dhabi. However, no official agreement regarding payment standstill has been reached.

There has been a surprisingly sharp increase of five year credit default swaps (CDS) for Dubai recently. They are right now quoted at 510 bps. Do you understand the implications? ...