Section View of Snowstorm (selected details)

Supposedly when the sub-prime mortagage crisis hit America, entire swathes of less-glitzy suburbs emptied out and turned into vacant shells, as their bankrupt residents simply left with their meagre belongings before the bank came to repossess their houses. A somewhat even more surreal version of this is happening in Dubai. Dubai has been going quite crazy lately ... sort of like Singapore on steroids and with far more impulsive planning. Perhaps the crunch, now that it has come, will drive them far crazier too.
On the somewhat brighter side, some firms are still not in a "just retrench" mood. I don't know how true Toyota's sentiment that simply shedding 10 per cent of its North American work force would be a disaster' because '"if respect for people goes out the window, then they lose the foundation for the future because then suddenly people are going to say this company is not any different from any other company."' So what if propsective employees don't discern between Toyota, Nissan and GM? As long as they are willing to work at any one of those firms, isn't it all the same for the employers? But maybe benefits do accrue to Toyota due to employee loyalty. It would be interesting to find out, in an objective, rigorous way, for sure. Either way, it is a heartening thing to know that cold, hard capitalism isn't all there is in this world.